ADAM RED, EVE WHITE.
mt wstrt 01 tse husai bads
And the Origin of Color.
REV. J. F. DYSON, B.D.
Aliis Diet is, Opinio Men Regain)'.
A NEW AND SIMFLE EXPLANATION
of the
DpilTV OF THE HUMAN ^AdE
AND THE ORIGIN OF COLOR,
Based'upon the theory that Adam'was of a red and Eve of
a white complexion. The theory thoroughly
discussed and elucidated by facts of
Scripture, Etymology, Anatomy, Psychology, Clima¬
tology, and Microscopy.
The fact of the Negro being a descendant of the first
human pair clearly proved,"and monogenism
irrefutably established.
By Rev. J. F. DYSON, B.D.,
Author of " Richard Attends Place in History"A re Tie
Africans or' Americans?'''' and "Political Cross
Roads, Which Way?"
NASHVILLE, TENN.:
Southern Methodist Publishing House.
printed for the author.
1886.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1886, by
J. F. DYSON,
in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D.C.
^BDIGAHIOH.
5o Ri?l?t Reu. Ji fl\. TURNER. dd- CC.D.,
One of the. Most Illustrious Philosophers and
Scientists of the Nineteenth Century,
From
whose hand
I received my first
appointment in the ministry
of the Church of God—the same being
the first appointment of a minister to the
pastorate made by him after his election and
consecration to the Bishopric; and who also ordained
me for the deaconate in the African Methodist Episcopal
Church; I being the first man upon whose head he laid
his hands in exalting to orders — for his fearless defense
of the liberties of his people; for his sacrifices for the
Church which has recognized his worth by befit¬
ting honors; for his matchless and incessant plead¬
ings for Africa; for his love and encouragement
of the struggling young ministry; for his
dauntless courage in speaking and acting
in accordance with his conscien¬
tious convictions, this book is
reverently dedicated by
THE AUTHOR.
J^EFAGE.
This book presents a new idea upon a very important
subject; one upon which there are myriad theories ex¬
tant. With much research, and great care, its author
has endeavored to present his opinion in it, frankly and
methodically. He does not expect that his conclusions
will be accepted without debate, or that they will be
read without criticism. No one who treads the realm of
science can reasonably expect this. No one who dares
attempt to controvert an opinion which is generally ac¬
quiesced in, and which age has in a measure sanctified,
need expect any thing but ridicule or contempt. But is
not one well paid for any effort, if that effort causes
people to think ?
If this book, humble in form and pretension of con¬
tents, only prove suggestive, it has reached its end, and
I shall be abundantly compensated thereby for the labor
in its preparation.
Respectfully,
J. F. DYSON.
Nashville, Tenn., September 1, 1886.
Table of Contents.
Dedication, 3
Preface, 5
Contents, 7
CHAPTER I.
Statement and Scriptural References, .... 9
CHAPTER II.
Color of the First Man Proved, .... 13
CHAPTER III.
Color of the First Woman Proved, . . . .18
CHAPTER IV.
Theories Controverted, ...... 24
CHAPTER V.
Color Generally and Climatic Peculiarities, . . 31
CHAPTER VI.
Origin of the White and Black Complexions, . . 3}
CHAPTER VII.
Origin of the White and Black Complexions—con¬
tinued, ......... 43
CHAPTER VIII.
Comparative Tables Showing the Almost Infinite
Differences between the Negro and the Orang-
Outang, and his Structural Sameness with the
Blancos, ........ 52
'tik vr dwsodwi
(ten. i. 3.
CHAPTER I.
STATEMENT, AND SCRIPTURAL REFERENCES.
is one of the healthiest signs of the present
Jj£, day that all questions are treated as open to
^ calm and serious investigation, however long,
and generally, they may have been regarded as set¬
tled. The search for truth is the noblest occupa¬
tion of the mind or heart, and as such must be pre¬
eminently an impulse from Him who made us as we
are. To deserve our homage it needs, however, to
be reverent; anxious to establish, not to destroy;
patient 4n observation and research; and slow to
admit conclusions which overthrow accepted opin¬
ions. It does not, ot course, follow that because a
belief is of long standing it is right; but respect
10 Unity of the Human Race,
for our fellows, the modesty of true science, and
the presumption in favor of hereditary conviction,
demand the most diffident humility in its examina¬
tion.
I have a right to my own opinion concerning
matters based upon hypothesis, and no one will
deny that, whatever conclusions concerning the
color of races which ethnologists have arrived at
are at best founded on presumption. This can
truthfully he said of the most learned and labored
treatises which expositors of this branch of human
inquiry have given the world as the result of their
researches, and there are many of these.
I think there has been more speculation, with¬
out arriving at an incontrovertible conclusion,"
upon this subject than upon any other which has
claimed the attention,of thinkers.
I do not engage in this discussion for the mere
purpose of presenting an idea which may only
join issue with theories already extant, yet prove
nothing. My aim is loftier. It is to shed what¬
ever light I am capable of shedding upon a prob¬
lem wrapped in sable garments of uncertainty.
Yet, if on my way I differ in opinion with any one,
what boots it if from.the contact of mental steel
and flint we get the spark of truth ?
I admit, at once, that my argument as to the
origin of the colors of races, is a new one, based
upon an entirely novel postulate.
And the Origin of Color." 11
The first information that we have concerning
the creation of man is found in Genesis i. 27.-31,
which reads: " So God created man in his own
image, in the image of God created he him; male
and female created he them. And God blessed
them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and
multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it:
and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and
over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing
that moveth upon the earth. And God said, Be¬
hold, I have given your every herb bearing seed,
which is upon the face of all the earth, and every
tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree, yielding
seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every
beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air,
and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth,
wherein there is life, I have given every green herb
for meat: and it-was so."
Some are of the queer opinion that the human
beings referred to in the verses just quoted were
pre-Adamites, or people who were created and
who lived before Adam.* Be this as it may, one
thing is clear, and that is, no reference is made as
to how they were created, or of ivhat they were
created—the very facts which are necessary to be
known in dealing with the topic under considera¬
tion. Genesis ii. 7 reads as follows: "And the
Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground,
*" Winehell's Pre-Adamites.
12
Unity of the: Human Rac£,
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life >
and man became a living soul."
In this verse the " how" and the " of what" are
fully answered. How ? The Lord God formed
him and breathed into him. Of what was he
made ? Of the dust of the ground.
This narrative supplies us the information we
need' concerning man's creation, but contains not a
word concerning woman. We must therefore refer
to Genesis ii. 21-24, which reads: "And the Lord
God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and
he slept; and he took one of his ribs, and closed
up the flesh instead thereof. And the rib, which
the Lord God had taken from man, made he a
woman, and brought her unto the man. And
Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and
flesh of my flesh : she shall be called Woman, be¬
cause she was taken out of man."
These verses establish the "how" and "of
what" of woman's creation. How? Formed by
the Lord God. Of what? Of one of the man's
ribs. I wish now to determine the color of the
first man, for my whole argument depends upon
the color of the first man and first woman.
And the Origin of Color.
13
CHAPTER II.
COLOR OF THE FIRST MAN TROVED.
VIYIIOSE who are conversant with the Hebrew
language will agree with me in the statement
that the Hebrew word Adam, the name given
to the first man, means reddish or auburn color, as
well as man; or better, perhaps, red-man; the
name designating the color. I therefore claim two
points, ivhich, to any reasonable person, is suffi¬
cient proof of Adam's color, namely: the color of
the material out of which he was made, and this
indicated by his name. Is it not more reasonable
to believe that a man made out of red colored ma¬
terial, and having a name signifying red color, was
red, than to believe that he was white ? And is it
not strange that many men who seem consistent in
making expositions on other weighty matters will
agree that the first man was made of red clay,
that his name signified red color, that it was given
him because of his red color, yet he was white ?
Mystical inference. If the first man had been
made out of chalk, and called Chivvah, which is
Hebrew for white, what rational man is there
14
Unity of the Human Race,
under the sun who would presume to gravely as¬
sert that, notwithstanding his formation from
chalk, and his name which implies the color of
chalk, yet the first man was red ? But I must not
cross the Rubicon before I come to it. Perhaps
when I have presented my whole argument some
opinions will have undergone a change. Was the
first woman of the color of the first man? This
is a question whose answer will determine my
course of procedure.
1st. It is possible that the color of the first woman
was not of the same color of the first man. To say
that it is impossible is to limit omnipotence and
omniscience. The same wisdom that produced one
color in the man, could produce a different color
in the woman.
2d. It is probable that the first woman was not of
the same color of the first man, from the presump¬
tion that God having manifested variety of color
throughout the several kingdoms of nature would
not make an exception of it in the heads of crea¬
tion.
To begin with, there is the black earth and white
light of the sun; and there is the black crow and
the white crane—black and white birds; the black
and polar bear—black and white beasts; the black
dolphin and white fish. There is chalk, limestone,
and lead; coal, granite, and iron—black and white
stone and minerals; ebony trees and sycamore
And the Origin of Color. 15
trees; blackberries and white-capberries; the white
rose and dun pansy, and so forth.
3d. It is probable that the first woman and man
were not of the same complexion, from the fact
of the existence of divers colors in their offspring,
to time whereof the history of man runneth not
to the contrary, and the total silence of history,
sacred and profane, at the surprise of any race, or
individual of any race, in meeting another race, or
individual of another race of a different complex¬
ion, justifies this probability yet more.
4th. It is probable that the first man and woman
were of different complexions, from the fact that
all of Noah's children were not of the same color.
The words alchemy and chemistry preserve in
our own language this meaning of Ham or Cham.
They literally mean the "black art," from Kemia,
chem—black. They came to us through the Arabs
from Egypt.
That Ham in Hebrew means swarthy or darkish
all linguists are agreed, and as we have before in¬
timated, that in the early history of mankind
names given men frequently indicated peculiar
physical features possessed by those who bore
them, we are therefore to conclude that Noah's
second son was of a complexion darker than that
of either the oldest or youngest son.
Japheth, the name of the youngest son, was no
doubt derived from Yaphah, which means "to
16
Unity of tiie Human Race,
be beautiful,"* hence fair, that complexion being
thought the ideal of beauty among the ancients.
But for the children to be of different colors it is
necessary that the parents be of different colors,
and again their parents must have been of differ¬
ent colors, and so on back to the diversity, of color
between Adam and Eve.
What was Eve's color? She could not have
been red like Adam, otherwise their posterity
would have all been red. If she Avere darker than
red, or even Adam's color, their descendants, ac¬
cording to physiological law, wTould have been yet
darker. If she was jet black, their children, by
the same law, would have been a brown next to
black. These results would have been as stated,
provided their offspring had taken color after Adam,
admitting Eve to have been red, brown, or black,
and thus, too, accounting for the yellow, brown^
red, and black races of those who hold that there
are five distinct races of man.f But how about the
white race ? It seems to have been left entirely
out of the enumeration. There can be but one
conclusion regarding it. If Adam was of a reddish
color—as I think I have clearly shown him to have
been—and Eve was of a color which was neither
yellow, red, brown, nor black, and as some of their
posterity are a complexion different from either
*" Geike's Hours With the Bible.
t Blumenbacb.
And the Origin of Color. 17
of these just named, and that complexion is the
only one that she could possess, if we agree with
Blumenbach that there are but five races of men
distinguished by their color, then we must con¬
clude that Eve, the first woman, was white. The
argument upon which this conclusion is founded
is both scriptural and scientific, and from this
basis, and none other, it proposes to declare a
hitherto hidden truth.
Having established the color of the first man by
a draft on scripture narrative, etymology, and
mental philosophy, I shall now engage to establish
the color of the first woman by the same means,
perhaps using the argument of two or three affin¬
itive sciences in addition thereto.
2
18
Unity of the Human Race,
CHAPTER III.
color of the first woman proved.
SHALL now return to consider Gen. ii. 21-2-3,
wherein Moses, Israel's great law-giver, gives
^ the world the only trustworthy history it has of
the creation of woman and the beginning of the
world. The three verses (New Version) reads: 21.
"And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon
the man, and he slept; and he took one of his ribs,
and closed up the flesh instead thereof. 22. And the
rib, which the Lord God had taken from the man,
made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
23. And the man said, This is now bone of my
bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called
Woman, because she was taken out of man."
I attach more importance to the fact that woman
was made out of man's rib than others do, yet no more
than the fact deserves. If Adam was made out of
red clay, which naturally made his color red, is it
unreasonable to believe that as Eve was made out
of a white rib she therefore naturally received her
color from it, or received no color at all, if it be
contended that white is no color ? In all candor,
And the Origin of Color.
19
is not this a more reasonable, a simpler theory
than the many-sided, far-fetched, unscriptural,
and anti-scriptural ones that are semi-annually
thrust within notice of the reading public? It
fully accounts to the learned Duke of Argyle for
" every possible variety of tint from deepest black
to fairest white; "* it puts a bottom in Malphigi's
beautiful theory of rouge and pigmentum nigrum ;f
it explodes Winchell's pre-Adamites absurdity;
it sweeps the foundation from under Gliddon and
Nott's polygenism it silences "Ariel's" bray, and
brands his infamous unprovable assertion that the
Negro is a brute, a malicious lie; it withholds from
the murderer Cain and a she ape in the land of
Nod the ancestry of the black race; it shows
that the color of Ham's descendants is not the re¬
sult of Noah's cursing Canaan, by proving that
the source of their color was in Eden. In a word,
it turns a full light upon the Scripture declaration,
" God hath made of one blood all nations of men
for to dwell on all the face of the earth," traces it to
its true source, and keeps to the text in contend¬
ing with those who inadvertently overlook this truth,
pervert, or wilfully deny it. It does not require
nearly as great a stretch of faith to believe that
Eve took her color from the rib out of which she was
created a3 to believe that she was created out of
* Primitive Man. t Malphigi's Anatomy.
X Grliddon and Nott, Races of Men,
20 Unity of the Human Race,
the rib; therefore let us bow at the shrine of reason
and consistency. In proving the color of Adam I
resorted to the etymology of his name. Does not
the etymology of Eve's name also have reference
to her color ? Beyond a doubt it has. The word
which we translate Eve is Chavvah in Hebrew,
and means simply life, and no one who is familiar
with Holy Writ will deny that life and immortality
are symbolized by white, from the Pentateuch of
Moses to the Apocalypse of John, and in human
experience from Nimrod until now. Therefore,
Eve's color indicated that she was the "mother of all
living," or the source of all living, as much as her
name. In order for the woman to engage the at¬
tention of the man she must have been attractive.
What color is more attractive than white ? For
her to claim his protection she must have had a
delicate appearance. What color is more delicate
than white ? To draw upon his affection she must
have been fair, or in other words white; and I do
not think it more poetic than truthful for me to
say that Eve's color also denoted virtue, the
brightest gem in the diadem of her priceless
womanhood, and the most glorious and most valu¬
able legacy left by her to her posterity.
It would be unwise for me to multiply these sub¬
sidiary arguments in support of the fact of Eve's
color being white, which has been already made
plain, for in doing so I would underrate the mental
And the Origin of Color. 21
ability of the reader to grasp ordinary truth, and
see by the clear light of analogy, illustration, and
reason.
I am now to consider the complexions of the de¬
scendants of father Adam and mother Eve. At
once the important question is proposed: " If Eve
was white and Adam was red, none of their im¬
mediate descendants could have been entirely
white or entirely black. Some of them must have
approximated a white color, some a color medium
between white and red, and others must have ap¬
proximated Adam's color, or the colors must have
graded from nearly, or quite, red, up to nearly
white, in several fine shades. Where then is the
source of the full white and full black people?"
This question is not difficult of solution. In answer¬
ing it I shall show, however paradoxical the propo¬
sition may seem, that it is easier to account for the
black and white children from a red Adam and a
white Eve than it is to account for yellow, red,
brown, and black children from a white Adam and
white Eve, white and yellow children from a red
Adam and red Eve, or white, yellow, red, and
brown children from a black Adam and black Eve.
Knowing that there are different opinions as to
the universality of the flood, I shall not insist that
all human beings save Noah, his wife, his three sons
and their wives, perished therein. My agreeing
with those who affirm or those who deny this theory
22
Unity of the Human Race,
would neither strengthen nor weaken my argument
asserting the divergence of color in the first human
pair, and per force of reason in their descendants
whether they were roaming the table-land of Nod
during the flood, or rocking in the Ark upon the
billows above Shinar. I have before stated that
Noah's three sons, saying nothing of his wife and
his sons wives, differed in complexion. The names
of two of them indicate this. Ham (Hebrew
Cham) meansswarthy. Japheth (Hebrew Yaphar)
means to be fair or whitish. Between Ham's
swarthy complexion and Japheth's fair complex¬
ion it is not unreasonable to believe Shem's
auburn complexion had place.
The Scriptures say that Noah lived after the
flood three hundred and fifty years, but gives no
account of his having any other children than
those who survived the flood with him and his
wife in the Ark. As the Scriptures are mute on
this subject I shall be also. Not denying that
Noah had other sons and daughters born unto
him after the flood, but basing my theory of the
peopling of the earth upon the fruitfulness of
Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and the fruitfulness of
their children and their children's children, whose
geographical distribution alone I shall notice.
I assume as a matter of course that the white
complexion did not exist after Eve's death until
centuries after the confusion of tongues at Babel,
And the Origin of Color. 23
and the dispersion of the three grand divisions of
mankind thence " upon all the face of the earth,"
as the Hebrew has it, nor was the very black com -
plexion known until the people distinguished
thereby had subordinated themselves to the
circumstances which produced it. To what do
these statements lead ? They lead to the inevita¬
ble conclusion that all the complexions except the
white and black were the naturally direct result
of the union of Adam's and Eve's complexions, but
that these were produced by the "influences of the
chemical solar rays, the altitude or depression of
the general level, the difference of geological for¬
mations, the varying agencies of magnetism and
electricity, atmospheric peculiarities, miasmatic
exhalations from vegetable and mineral matter,
difference of soil, proximity to the ocean, variety
of food, habits of life and exposure."*
* Bishop Turner's Negro in All Ages.
24
Unitv of the Human Race,
CHAPTER IY.
theories controverted.
^pJ|EFORE proceeding further I shall consider
the most plausible of the theories on color
which my theory controverts, which is that of
Marcello Malphigi, an Italian anatomist. As Maj.
Delaney's Principia of Ethnology and the Origin of
Races and Color is Malphigi's theory throughout,
and as Malphigi's work on it appeared, and he died,
nearly two hundred years before Delaney gave his
book to the public, I think I am right in conced¬
ing to Malphigi the fatherhood of it. He divided
the skin into three layers, the cuticle, or outer
layer; the rete mucosm, or middle layer; and the
cutis, or inner layer. His entire theory may be
summed up as follows: (1) The rete mucosm, or
middle layer, is composed of a cellular tissue which
contains pigment, or coloring matter. (2) Of this
pigment the white race has least, the yellow race
more, and the black race most. It is to be re¬
marked that the author does not trace this un¬
equal distribution of pigment to its source and
cause, nor advances a reason for it. I think the
And the Origin of Color.
25
"Three-Creations" theory of Nott just as reason¬
able as this, and that is as reasonable as five
wheels to an ordinary wagon. Moreover, there
are many circumstances which those who accept
this opinion cannot account for.
1st. The change of color which certain states of
the system produce in the white race. Camper
says, that he knew a lady who had naturally a
beautiful white complexion, but who toward the
end of gestation became a veritable Negrol
Dr. Starck mentions a man who, after an attack
of intermittent fever became jet black.
Blumenbach possessed a part of the skin taken
from the abdomen of a beggar which was as black
as that of a native of Africa.
Elliotson relates the case of a girl in St.
Thomas hospital whose family were all white, but
her left shoulder, arm, and hand were of African
blackness, except that a stripe of white ran be¬
tween the elbow and armpit; also that of a white
woman who in twenty years became entirely black
without any apparent reason.
The "Journal General" related a case where a
woman became suddenly black from mental dis¬
tress, and remained so. The blackness in this
case was not caused by jaundice, congestion of the
blood, or any other malady.
The " Transactions of the Medical Society," of
the State of New York, for 1858, contain a case of a
26 Unity of the Human Race,
change of color in the person of a female aged
sixteen years, reported by Dr. W. H. Gardiner,
September 15,1857. The discoloration of the skin
had existed for about two years, and she presented
in color the appearance of a dark mulatto, with
distinctly marked European features. Her father
was of English and her mother of American birth,
both had light complexions, with light eyes and
brown hair. All their children resembled them
in complexion except the patient of Dr. Gardiner,
who possessed the same complexion as her broth¬
ers and sisters until she had attained her four¬
teenth year. Soon after puberty some dark brown
spots were observed upon her forehead, which
looked at a little distance as if covered with fine
dust. These spots were not constant, nor did they
attract much attention until they had been pres¬
ent about two years. At the age of sixteen, after
an attack of slight illness, her complexion grew
rapidly darker, and in about two months had
acquired the deep hue which it afterward bore.
At this period she presented, when at a short dis¬
tance, the appearance of a Avhite person whose skin
had been covered with a thin coating of lamp¬
black, through which some appearance of the hue
of the surface was apparent, with here and there
spots from a few lines to a fourth of an inch in
diameter, which were as black as the skin of the
darkest African. On removing the cuticle from
And the Origin of Color. 27
one of these spots it was found to be overspread with
a pigment which had much the color of lamp¬
black mixed with mucilage. The hair had changed
from its original brown to black, and became
coarse and straight. Her eyes were of light h.azel,
the whites presenting that pearly appearance pe¬
culiar to the colored races.
These facts show that a physical change may
take place by means of which the skin of an indi¬
vidual of a white race may become as black as that
of the native of Africa.
2. The coloring matter is likewise liable to be
absorbed in the skin of those to whom it is natural,
and instances are not uncommon of Africans who
gradually lose their black color and become as
white as if they were the offspring of another race.
The " Manchester Memories " contain the case
of an African forty years of age whose skin had
so changed in two years that the narrator was con¬
vinced that all the black portions remaining did
not exceed a square foot, and the change was then
continuing rapidly.
The " Philosophical Transactions " contain the
case of a colored woman in the Holy Land forty years
of age, who had been turning white for fifteen
years, and had become in that time scarcely dif¬
ferent in color from an European.
Dr. Barton relates the case of ITenry Moss, an
African, in the State of Maryland, whose skin had
28
Unity of the Human Race,
undergone a complete change from a deep black
to a clear and healthy white. The change com¬
menced about the abdomen, and gradually ex¬
tended over the different parts of the body, so that
in seven years it had spread over a greater part of
the skin. It had not a sickly or albino hue as if
from the effect of disease, but was of a healthy
aspect.
The writer met two colored women in St. Louis
in 1881, who both had undergone a change in com¬
plexion from full black to fair white. A volume
of considerable size could be collated of facts
such as the foregoing. But what bearing do they
have upon the theory that elaborated and concen¬
trated rouge in the cells of the rete mucosm is the
cause of the divers complexions? They prove
that it does not hold good in the instances of black
people turning white under the same conditions
that they have lived black thirty or forty years,
and white people turning black under the same con¬
ditions that they have lived white a generation or
half a cfentury. Moreover, Kolliker* has discov¬
ered by microscopical researches that there is in
reality no rete mucosm, but that which is thought to
be it is but the more recently formed parts of the
epidermis containing the pigment or coloring
matter, it is true, but the same in quantity and
concentration in the white as in the black races.
* Kolliker's Microscopy.
And the Origin of Color. 29
Tell me by Malphigi's theory, Where does the ad¬
ditional rouge or pigment come from which turns
a man's complexion black which has been white
forty years, or where does the concentrated rouge
or pigment go to when a woman's complexion,
which has been black all her life before, turns
white at twenty-five ? There is manifest weakness
here. When I first read this theory, a number of
years ago, I thought it a beautiful and simple ex¬
planation of a deep and important subject, and
with many, who, like myself, had not given a great
deal of attention to the science to which, it related,
I indorsed it without question. But since I have
taken on myself to investigate the foundation of
certain opinions in ethnological inquiry, whose
novelty and the learning of their author recom¬
mended them to the reflection of those interested in
the progress of the science, I have discovered cer¬
tain discrepancies which are fatal to the notion as
a whole. For example, according to this opinion
both Adam and Eve were red, so were their pos¬
terity during one thousand six hundred and fifty-
six years, down to Noah and his wife, who were of
the same color, but by some means, miraculous,
special creation, or what not, its author does not
say, Noah's sons were of colors different from his.
Shem was yellow, Ham was black, and Japheth
was white. I do not believe this, because it is un¬
reasonable.
30
Unity of the Human Race,
Again, what was there in the locality, food, sur¬
roundings, and climate, if special divine operation
be rejected, that would affect the complexion of
the three brothers so as to make it different in each
—the two extreme colors, white and black, and the
medium yellow; this, too, while Noah and his
wife, in the same locality with them, eating the
same food, amid the same surroundings, and be¬
neath the same sun, continued red ? It also seems
strange that during the hiatus of at least one thou¬
sand six hundred and fifty years between Adam
and Noah the people retained the color of the
former, and yet within fifty years before the deluge
these colors diverged. Thus could I continue
until I had caused the argument which supports
this theory to utterly perish beneath the weight of
its own inconsistencies, oversights, omissions, and
fallacies, but I forbear for the thought that to show
the reasonableness of my own opinion will be of
more utility than to show the unreasonableness of
another's.
And-the Origin of Color. 31
CHAPTER Y.
COLOR GENERALLY AND CLIMATIC PECULIARITIES.
Wr MUST not be understood by the foregoing ar-
Jfi. gument as disputing the division of the skin,
^ whether imaginary or not, into as many layers as
any author chooses to separate it, or the existence of
the coloring principle in any one or more of these
layers. What I dispute is, that this coloring mat¬
ter is distributed in unequal measure in the differ
ently colored people, and that this unequal distribu¬
tion is the cause of the various complexions. More¬
over, if I were to acknowledge that this opinion is
unanswerable so far as it explains the origin of
color it does not account for the peculiar physical
distinctions among the different branches of the
human family.
My opinion is that the base of the several com¬
plexions was in the first man and first woman, and
that whatever variation from the product of union
of these colors has taken place, its cause was cir¬
cumstantial, fortuitous, and external, which also
produced variation in physical features.
Dr. Smith says: "The influence of climate on
32 Unity of the Human Race,
the human complexion is demonstrated by well-
known and important events Avithin the memory
of history. From the Baltic to the Mediterranean
the different latitudes of Europe are marked by
different shades of color, and in tracing the origin
of the fair German, the dark colored Frenchman,
and the swarthy Spaniard and Sicilian, it has been
proved that they are all derived from the same
parent stock, or at least from nearly resembling
nations."*
Says Prof. Hamilton: "The southern provinces
of France, of Italy, of Spain, and other European
countries are distinguished from the northern by
a much deeper shade of complexion. But, per¬
haps, the! most striking example is furnished by
the Jews, who by abstaining, or being prohibited
from intermarrying with other nations form a dis¬
tinct people in every quarter of the globe, and yet
show noticeable shades of complexion in different
climates."f
If the complexion is thus in a few years affected
by climatic influences, would not centuries of time
or thousands of years work a deeper change in it?
But how is the presence of the people of fair complex¬
ion who dwell in the hottest region of the earth to
be accounted for if it is maintained that the effects
of the heat of the sun is blackening ?
Humboldt says : " The people of the Rio Negro
* Smith's Climatology, t Hamilton's Travels,
And the Origin of Color.
33
are swarthier than those of the lower Orinoco, and
yet the banks of the first of these rivers enjoy a
much cooler climate than the more northern re¬
gions."*
" Do we not in fact behold," says Virly, " the
tawny Hungarian dwelling for ages under the
same parallel and in the same country with the
whitest nations of Europe, and the red Peruvian,
the brown Malay, the nearly white Abyssinian in
the very zones which the blackest people in the uni¬
verse inhabit, "f
The natives of Van Dieman's Land are black,
while Europeans of the corresponding northern
latitudes are white, and the Malabars, in the most
burning climate, are no browner than the Siberians.
The temperature of a place, however, depends not
only on its latitude, but on its elevation and its me¬
teorological conditions. For these reasons the lines
of equal temperature do not always agree with the
same degrees of latitude, nor are they measured by
the widest range in the thermometer. In measur¬
ing the effect of any particular climate upon com¬
plexion, therefore, it is necessary not only to de¬
termine its absolute degree of latitude, but also
to ascertain what other causes are in operation
tending to bestow a deeper or lighter shade upon the
human countenance. Those nations most exposed
to the weather and farthest removed from civil-
- Inland Africa, t Philosophical Review.
3
34
Unity of the Human Race,
ization are, as a general rule, the darkest. Thus,
the South Sea Islanders, who seem to be of one
family, vary in complexion according to the de¬
gree of their civilization.
The Australians, who are savages, are black.
The New Zealanders, half civilized, are tawny.
The Friendly Islanders are frequently of an olive
hue, while the people of Tahiti and the Society
Islands, who are the farthest advanced in civil¬
ization, are often possessed of a light complexion
and flowing ringlets.
" The negro," says Geike, " seems, indeed, to
have assumed his typical characteristics from
special conditions."*
" The real African," says Winwood Reade, in
the "Anthropological Review," " is copper-colored,
and superior to the negro mentally and physically.
It is my belief," continues he, "that the negro in¬
habits only maritime districts, or the marshy dis¬
tricts of the interior, that he originally belonge I
to the copper-colored race, and that his degenera¬
tion of type is due entirely to the influence of
climate and food."f
The privations of the natives of Connemara in
the year preceding the famine of 1847, were re¬
marked as having led to a change in the whole
physical type; the jaws becoming prominent, as in
the negro, and the whole man affected. It is to be
* Hours With the Bible, t Vol 8, No. 3.
And the Origin of Color. 35
remembered, moreover, that a modification of
structure or color once introduced becomes perma¬
nent, and that circumstances may lead to it to the
most surprising extent in a very short time, as in the
lower animals. Darwin traces all the varieties of
domestic pigeons to the stock-dove.*
That the different families which re-peopled
the earth after the deluge were already in a degree
contrasted, there is do doubt in my mind, and
with the acknowledged changes in bony structure
and color, which have been quoted from instances
within recent times, there surely remains no sur¬
passing difficulty in the way of the belief that the
black and white races may early have assumed
their special characteristics from special influences
of locality and food, but not to such a degree as to
leave no argument for the unity of the human
species.
The plains of Shinar, where the descendants of
reddish Shem, brownish Ham, and yellowish Ja-
pheth, had their language changed, and whence
they were dispersed, was in 32' north latitude, and
46' longitude east from Greenwich, in a part of the
country now called Persia. The Shemitic people
traveled into and occupied the country now called
Asia, the Hamitic Africa, and the Japhetic Europe.
Here it is seen that Ham went into a climate nearer
the equator than either Shem or Japlieth, and one
* Origin of Species.
3G Unity of the Human Race,
which has the effect of burning complexions
darker. Japheth pitched his tents even farther
north than Ham did his south, in a climate which
has an achromatizing effect, while Shem jour¬
neyed east and north-east, occupying to a con¬
siderable extent the original center and latitude
whence the other heads of the post-diluvian na¬
tions diverged, and which of course would not
effect their complexion to change it.
And the Origin of Color. 37
CHAPTER VI.
ORIGIN OF THE WHITE AND BLACK COMPLEXIONS.
UT it is already understood that my main ef¬
fort is directed to account for the white and
black colors of men. If Eve was white and
Adam red, naturally their posterity was of a color
between these. Whence, then, came the white
complexion ?
If the white complexion could not result from a
union in an equal or unequal degree of Adam's
and Eve's complexion, it would seem still more
difficult to account for this color after Eve's de¬
cease. This, no doubt, seems an insuperable bar¬
rier to a popular acceptance of my theory.
I wish in this connection to reiterate the state¬
ment, that I do not claim my conclusions on this
subject to be final; that they establish incontro¬
vertible facts, but that they are founded upon
hypotheses that are more rational than those upon
which any other theory on the origin of colors is
founded, and therefore easier to be believed.
In order to account for the white complexion,
we must first establish the unity of the human
38 Unity of the Human Race,
race. We bring first to our aid the Bible, which
is the highest authority on this subject. Hear it:
" By one man sin entered into the world, and
death by sin. So death passed upon all men."
Again: "For as in Adam all die, even so in
Christ shall all be made alive."
Again: " The first man, Adam, was made a
living soul; the last Adam was made a quicken¬
ing spirit."
Again : " The first man is of the earth, earthy;
the second man is the Lord from heaven."
As Adam is the actual head of all that trans¬
gress, all who die, and all who feel the curse, so
Christ is the spiritual head of all that are saved
from sin and the sting of death. The universal
headship of the one finds its parallel in the uni¬
versal headship of the other; thus the path to
Eden is the same to all, so far as we can glean
from biblical authority.
My second appeal is to history. Nations and
races of men the most remote from and least re¬
sembling each other, are so analogous in their
mental habits that at least it is impossible to ques¬
tion the unity and identity of the intellectual fac¬
ulties of the human species.
1. The language of signs and gestures used by
the deaf and dumb of Europe coincide with the
method of communication employed under similar
circumstances by the aborigines of North America.
And the Origin of Color. 39
2. With but few exceptions, all nations have
arrived at a single or double decimal system, be¬
cause they have used their fingers in counting.
3. Skin-painting and tattooing reappeared in
every part of the world.
4. Knocking out and filing the teeth to a sharp
point was practiced by the ancient Britons, as
well as by the Australians and Brazilians.*
5. The skulls of freeborn children were pressed
between boards to give them a more upright form
by the people of Southern Russia, South America,
and British Columbia.
6. The strange custom of greeting by rubbing
noses is not only peculiar to all Esquimaux,f even
as far as Greenland, but is also ascribed to the Aus-
tralians.+ Darwin observed it among the Maori of
New Zealand ;|| Lamont noticed it among the Poly¬
nesians of the Penrhyn Islands ;§ Wallace saw it
practiced among his crew in taking leave of Man-
cassa,^[ and Linneus observed it in Lapland.**
7. The Polynesians, Mohawks in North America,
and Zulus in South Africa, all ratify a bond of
friendship by an exchange of names.
8. The widows of South American Fuegians
"* Yon Martin's Ethnography, t Barrow, Arctic Yoyages.
t Waitz Anthropology. II Voyage in Beagle.
2 Wild Life Among the Pacific Islanders.
11 Malay Archipelago.
Taylor's Early History of Mankind.
40
Unity of the Human RacE,
and the inhabitants of the Andaman Islands, in
the Gulf of Bengal, are obliged to wear the skulls
of their dead husbands suspended from the neck
by a cord.*
I appeal, in the third place, to anatomy. Says
Huxley :
" The student of anatomy is perfectly well aware
that there is not a single organ of the human body
the structure of which does not vary to a greater
or less extent in different individuals.
(a) " The skeleton varies in the proportion, and
even to a certain extent in the connections of its
constituent bones.
(b) " The muscles which move the bones vary
largely in their attachment.
(e) " The varieties in the mode of distribution
of the arteries are carefully classified, on account
of the practical importance of a knowledge of their
shiftings to the surgeon.
(d) " The characters of the brain vary immense¬
ly, nothing being less constant than the form and
size of the cerebral hemispheres, and the richness
of the convolutions upon their surface, while the
most changeable structures of all in the human
brain are exactly those on which the unwise at¬
tempt has been made to base the distinctive char¬
acters of humanity, viz.: the posterior cornu of
the lateral ventricle, the hippocampus minor, and
* Frederick Monat, Andaman Islanders.
And tiie Origin of Color.
41
the degree of projection of the posterior lobe be¬
yond the cerebellum."*
So far as our present knowledge reaches, the
majority of the structural varieties to which allu¬
sion is here made are individual.
The ape-like arrangement of certain muscles,
which is occasionally met with in the white races
of mankind, is not known and cannot be proven
to be more common among the black; nor be¬
cause the brain of the Hottentot Venus was found
to be smoother, to have its convolutions more sym¬
metrically disposed, and to be so far more ape-like
than that of ordinary Europeans, are we justified
in concluding a like condition of the brain to pre¬
vail universally among the lower races of mankind,
however probable that conclusion may be ?
Lastly, I appeal to psychology.
There has yet to be discovered a people who
have no conception of a Supreme Being or
power to whom or which they owe worship. On
this grand subject the human conscience, ir¬
respective of clime, color, or other conditions, is
a unit, and into the benighted recesses of the
hearts of the descendants of Shem, Ham, and Ja-
pheth, with equal strength and glory the sun of
righteousness darts its undiscriminating and hal¬
lowing rays. How about the day of Pentecost?
There were on that "day Parthians, Medes, Elam-
* Man's Place in Nature.
3*
42 Unity of the Human Race,
ites, Mesopotamians, Jucleans, Cappadocians, Pon-
tusians, Asiatics, Phrygians, Pamphylians, Egyp¬
tians, Libians, Romans, Cretans, and Arabians—
people representing the three grand divisions of
mankind, and who received the divine afflatus,
and by its power spoke to each other understand-
ingly in his own tongue.
And the Origin of Color. 48
CHAPTER VII.
ORIGIN OF THE WHITE AND BLACK COMPLEXIONS
CONTINUED.
;V|¥£AVING established the unity of the human
species by arguments from the Holy Script-
ures, history, anatomy, atid psychology, I
shall now take up the origin of the white com¬
plexion.
Says Prof. DeQuatrefages: "These two extreme
types—white and black—represent the last product
of two series of long continued actions, whose di¬
versity and multiplicity are indicated by the geo¬
graphical stations themselves. Europe and Africa,
respectively, have given them, if the expression
may be used, the last touches, but their outline
was sketched out long before they reached their
present habitat."*
What else can the learned professor mean than
that upon the the plains of Shinar, as I have already
stated, the complexion of the race which is now
white inclined toward that color, and the com¬
plexion of the race which is now black inclined to-
* The Human Species.
44 Unity of the Human Race,
ward that color, and that after each had selected
its locality and became acclimated, their complex¬
ions underwent a permanent change, incident to
the climate. This is verbatim my argument, that
Japheth was of a light and Ham of a swarthy
color, and that the climes in which they re¬
spectively dwelt, simply bleached the one and
scorched the other.
By referring to any reliable map of the disper¬
sion it will be seen that the white race—the Cau¬
casian of Blumenbach, and Mediterraneans of
Peschel—occupies the space between the tropic of
Cancer and the Arctic Circle. Now, because this
latitude is occupied by the white race, and because
the auburn sons of Shem and the ebony sons of
Ham, coming into it, became lighter, and because
the white race grows darker as it approaches the
equator—for example, the Italians, Spaniards, and
Turks—and are altogether black at the equator,
we are forced, by the natural weight of logic, to
conclude that these climates produced the color of
their inhabitants, and that to do so is their peculiar
tendency.
I have but to refer the reader of ordinary un¬
derstanding to the changes in the complexion of the
Esquimaux in order to convince him of the effect
of climate on color. The Esquimaux are the de¬
scendants of Shem, whose complexion was origi¬
nally Adamic, auburn, or reddish. They first jour-
And the Origin of Color. 45
neyed to the extreme northeast of Asia, above the
Arctic Circle, remained there several centuries,
no doubt, then a large number of them, but not
all, crossed the neck of land which is now inun¬
dated, and which we call Behring Strait, and de¬
scended south into America, where they are known
as Indians. The typical Esquimau is of what I
might call a sallow complexion, which is no doubt
due to his dirty and greasy habit, and which
otherwise would be of a Caucasian whiteness. I
had the pleasure of seeing an Esquimau in Mr.
Barnum's circus who had been traveling with him
for years, and who had been taught habits of
cleanliness. His skin was of lily whiteness. Now
these sons of Shem were first reddish, but when
they had lived several centuries north of the
Arctic Circle they were bleached white, as we
now find them as Esquimaux, and finally wander¬
ing in the same zone in America from which they
originally started in Asia, naturally they took on
their original complexion. I do not stand alone
as an advocate of this climatico-bleaching theory.
Prof. DeQuartrefages says: " Cold contracts the
tissues, drives the blood toward the interior, or
checks its circulation toward the surface of the
body, leaving the skin dry, rough, and conse¬
quently lighter." *
Lubbock says: " Beyond peradventure the
* The Human Species.
46
Unity of the Human Race,
absence of color in the people who are called
white was effected by the climate in which they
live." *
Taylor says: " I agree with other ethnologists
that a cold climate blanches complexions."f
Morton says: " It is evident that the northern
races were made fair by the climate."!
It will not be difficult to prove that a hot climate
scorches complexions darker from the many in¬
stances that are within our observation. Note the
change in the complexion of the harvester in
winter and summer! Look at the sun-browned
" Tar " as he comes from beneath the equatorial
sunbeams! See how dark children become from
playing in the sun in summer! Notice the
difference in complexion between two German
sisters, one of whom assists her father and mother
in the field, and is darker in consequence, while
the other attends to household affairs, and is for this
reason of lighter complexion. Scores of other ex¬
amples of the coloring property of the sun could
be adduced. But those of you who are not Monog-
enists, or who do not believe that all human be¬
ings descended from one parent stem, will ask me
if a cold climate makes the lips thin and the nose
sharp ? if a hot climate, conversely, produces thick
lips and the flat nose ? I have answered questions
* Origin of Civilization, t Primitive Culture.
t Types of Manhood.
And the Origin of Color. 47
which were more difficult than this, and I will an¬
swer this one by saying that although all climato-
logists are agreed that excessive heat produces
rank growth in animals as well as in plants, yet I do
not concede that the features just mentioned are
of climatic peculiarity. I am of the opinion that
thin lips and sharp noses are normal characteristics
of the human family, and that the reverse of these
are abnormal and of easy explanation. The thick¬
ness of the African's lips resulted, no doubt, from
their practice of sucking saps and wines from the
palm and various other trees, which is a common
practice among them. If any one doubts whether
this will produce thick lips let him suck his own
lips, or press them hard with his palm while read¬
ing this, and he will discover when he ceases that
they are swollen. Continual practice in this will
make its result fixed. The flatness of the Afri¬
can's nose is the effect of a peculiar practice
among them of laying their infants on their faces
in a sacred cradle for twenty days after their birth,
or until they see whether the tree which is planted
at their birth lives.
The darker colors in plants and animals are to be
found only in the hottest part of the earth. Bishop
Heber declares that three hundred years' residence
in India have made the Portugese nearly as black
as the Caffres. The learned Richard Watson
speaks also of a Jewish settlement in tropical
48 Unity of the Human Race,
India where a colony emanating from the same
source that the white Jews of this country did,
have, in the lapse of a few centuries, become as
black as the negroes.
Dr. Morton says: " The children of Abraham
are found of every hue from the ruddy tint of the
Polish and German, through the dusky hue of the
Moorish and Syrian, to the jetty melanism of the
black Jews of India. The Hindoos themselves
present every variety of complexion, from the
fair-skinned Rajport, whose cheek is fanned by
the cool breezes of the Himalayas, to the swarthy
Coolies, and the coal-black fishermen who swarm
on the burning banks of the Hoogly."
Bishop Turner says: "If you ask me what it is
in the climate that so operates as to work these
varieties in the human species, I have but to say,
I cannot tell: nor can I tell," continues he, "what
it is in the climate of Africa that has made white
hogs turn black, that strips the sheep of its wool
and clothes it with black hair, that causes the dog to
lose his hair, and leaves him with a black oily skin,
that changes the feathers of several gallinacious
fowls from lively colors to black. Too little is
known of the chemical workings of nature's myste¬
rious laboratory to solve the problem yet, for chem¬
istry is in the hands of God, its workings in the
heavens, in the atmosphere, in the sweeping
rivers, in the ocean, in dew-drops, in the earth,
And the Origin of Color. 49
in t e rocks, in the vegetable and mineral king¬
doms, and in man, bird, and beast."*
Bat another question is proposed: Why does
not the African turn lighter in a colder climate ?
I give Bishop Turner's words as a reply: " Dough
may be readily changed into bread by subjecting
it to heat, but bread cannot so readily be changed
into dough by reversing the process, or subjecting
it to cold or water, yet no man would from this
fact affirm that a lump of dough and a loaf of
bread may not have the same origin."f But the
African does grow lighter in the colder climates.
The Africans of this country are much lighter in
color than the same people in Africa. The Gyp¬
sies, in spite of their exposure and nomadic habits,
have gradually assumed a lighter tint in the
cooler parts of Europe. The men who had the
Zulus in charge in Mr. Barnum's circus told me
that they had grown at least a shade and a half
lighter in color since they had left their.native
climate. It may be inquired, What features of
my theory of color as effected by climate recom¬
mend it above others to the popular favor ? Those
monogenists who hold that both Adam and Eve
were white, argue that the black race became so
by the action of the sun on its complexion,
just as I do, and those who set forth the color of
*The Negro in All Ages, t Ibid.
50 Unity of the Human Race,
the first human pair as being red, argue that their
white descendants were bleached white by a coM
climate, and their black descendants were scorched
black by a hot climate. This also is my argument.
The theory which I advance is seen to be more
reasonable than either of these, from the fact that
it argues that from Adam's complexion being red
and Eve's white, their intermixture made Japheth,
whose color inclined toward Eve's, a quadroon, a
color easy to bleach to pure white under proper
conditions, and Ham, who resembled Adam, in
having an auburn color, easy to be burned black.
If this assertion is answered by the criticism that
the theory that Ham was of a red complexion,
which was burned black, is an old one, I grant it,
but reply that the theory of a quadroon Japheth is
a new one, original with myself, and that it is less
difficult to prove that red was burned black than
that red was bleached white. I have, therefore,
undertaken the most difficult problem of the two,
and yet presented a more reasonable solution to it
than is presented for the easier one. I but assert
an incontrovertible truth, whose foundation is but¬
tressed by declarations of Holy Writ, and by the
imperial authority of science, when I say "there
is but one race, and that is the human race." Does
some one say, Yes, but there are varieties in the
human race ? I reply, of course there are. I have
stated as much before, but in most localities there
And the Origin of Color.
51
can be seen contrasts in color, hair, height, shapes
of heads, size of feet, etc., more marked between
some individuals of the white complexion than can
be discovered between some individuals of the
white and black complexions.
52
Unity of the Human Race:,
CHAPTER VIII.
comparative tables.
proving the unity of the human race, I spike
M* the mud-guns of those who foolishly prate that
the black skinned people are only a higher or¬
der of monkeys. As every speaker and writer of
the division of the human family to which I belong,
who has at all touched upon the genesis of color,
has found it necessary to refute this damnable
heresy, and inasmuch as I cannot say any thing
new by way of refutation, because all has been
said by others that could possibly be said, I shall
here simply indorse Bishop Turner's table of dif¬
ferences between the Negro and the Orang-Outang
as my own argument, and as the most conclusive
among the many offered.
He says in his own inimitable style: "The wise
timber-heads who trace man's origin to the monkey
tribe, invariably indentify the black people with it
especially. Well, let us see how that position will
stand the test. The Negro, they say, sprang from
the monkey, or in other words, is an elevated
monkey, and is of a higher order of monkeys. lie
And the Origin of Color.
53
is a monkey, but he has simply thrown off some
of the characteristics of the wild monkey, and
through domestication has imbibed moral and
mental habits, and partakes of the physical con¬
formations peculiar to the bi-manual races.
Now let us compare the Negro and Orang-
Outang, one of the highest orders of the monkey
tribe.
Negro. Orang-Outang.
Bones (including teeth)..240 228
Teeth 32 24
Hands 2 4
Feet 2 0
Walks erect On all-fours.
Short frizzled hair Hair straight and 6 in. long,
covering whole body.
Black skin Gray-bluish pale, but never
black.
Long heel (said) None.
From 5 to 6 ft. tall From 3 to 4 feet.
Whip their young Bite their young.
Old at 70 and 80 ....Twenty and twenty-five.
Hair naturally black ...Brownish red color.
Lips generally thick So thin as to appear like a
seam.
Legs longest Arms longest.
Laughs and talks Neither.
And thus we might continue to show their dis¬
similarity in a hundred other instances, but what
would be the use ?
I have adduced enough already to show that
it would be more trouble for God to transform the
Orang-Outang into a man than it would be to
make the man at once. And more than enough
54 Unity of the Human Race,
» —r
has been adduced to prove that those who advocate
that abominable heresy are either fools or vil¬
lains."*
While Dr. Turner has shown an indisputable
morphological chasm existing between the Negro
and that order of the monkey that approaches
nearest to man in structure, so broad as to be
impossible of being bridged on the one hand, Dr.
Bachman,f a corresponding member of the Zoolog¬
ical Society, on the other hand, in the following
succinct table, exhibits the osseological sameness
of the Negro and Blanco people :
Blanco, i Negro. ||
Teeth above 16 Teeth above 1ft
Teeth below 16 Teeth below 16
True ribs each side 7 True ribs each side 7
False ribs 5 False ribs 5
Dorsal vertebrae 12 Dorsal vertebrae 12
Lumbar vertebrae 5 Lumbar vertebrae 5
Sacral vertebrae 5 Sacral vertebrae 5
Caudal vertebree 4 Caudal vertebrae 4
Aggregate in skeleton ...240 Aggregate in skeleton... 240
There yet remain to be answered those who
think that they are garrisoned in, their prejudice
to the black people by the fond idea that there is
structural peculiarity in the hair of the Negroid
people, which of itself, if nothing else does, classes
them as a race distinct from the Blanco people.
I will answer them by saying I have found that
* The Negro in All Ages, t Unity of the Human Race,
t Spanish for White. |j Spanish for Black.
And the Origin of Color. 55
theii; cannon is loaded with wind for powder, and
thistledown for ball, and in the name of scientific
truth I demand that they run up the white flag,
and accede to the proposition of immediate and
unconditional surrender. They will not do this,
therefore I shall move immediately upon their
works with the grape and cannister of microscopic
investigation.
Knowing that the hair question is one frequent¬
ly appealed to by polygenists, I have recently con¬
sidered it of sufficient importance as to claim my
personal observation in a critical examination.
What was the result of my placing hair under a
microscope, taken by my own hands from the
heads of (5) Africans, (5) Europeans, (5) Ameri¬
cans, and (5) Chinamen ? The result was that I dis¬
covered as much difference in structure and form
between the hairs from the heads of the (5) Euro¬
peans as I discovered between the hairs from the
heads of the (5) Africans and C5) Europeans, (5)
Americans and (5) Europeans, and the five China¬
men and (5) Europeans, and that (2) hairs of the
Africans, (2) of the Americans, (1) of the China¬
men, and (B) of the Europeans differed only in
length, straightness, and thickness. In a larger
work on ethnology, the MSS. of which is now in the
hand of the printer, I shall reproduce these mag¬
nified hairs by means of plates. From this result
of the examination of hair from the heads of so
50
Unity of the Human Race.
small a number of persons, I am forced to the con¬
clusion that upon universal and thorough exami¬
nation it will be found that the differences in the
hair of individuals of the human family are as ir¬
regular and as illimitable as.their complexions, and
that distinctions of superiority and inferiority can¬
not with any more reason be proved by the former
than by the latter.
I think I have already consumed the space orig¬
inally intended for this work. I therefore leave
my thoughts with the reader, with the hope that
they may, at least, enkindle thought in him on this
subject, and that the final outcome of my humble
entry into the arena of scientific inquiry will be
the placing of the golden key-stone of truth in the
silver arch that upholds the temple of eternal
justice, from whose garret window, kissed by fra¬
grant zephyrs, floats the banner bearing the im¬
mortal inscription, " The Fatherhood of God, and
the Brotherhood of Man."
*