^ *'!■>' .^ 9^. * . « O « .0-' .r C> V -,. -^0 .^ .^' '^bv ^-i^'^ 4. O ft v»y './i •' 6ir >i y «^ .jam-:. • • » ws J^' -o "^.P%'5° ^..^^ • .♦^..-•* 5^ .H<^^ ^o '-^::^^^^ IGROEniDiGROlilfEe!- THE FIRST. AN INFERIOR RACE-THE LATTER, ITS NORMAL CONDITION, BY J. H. VAN EYRIE, ]\r. D. INTRODUCTORY NUMBER: CAUSES OF POPULAR DELUSION ON THE SUBJECT. 0^^ M 1- Entered, according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1333, By J. H. Van Evrie, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Columbia. ^^39^^^. ^ JOHiV D. TOY, PRINTER, BALTIMORE. ^-^?7^4^^^ ^ ,-^rf^^e ^' LETTERS TO THE AUTHOR. From Hon. Jejferson Davisj Secretary of War. Washington, 3d June, 1853. 1)r. Van Enrie: Dear Sir, — I liave read the enclosed pages wilh great interest, and not as a Southern man merely, but as an American,! thank you for your able and manly exposure of a fallacy which more than any or all other causes has disturbed the tranquility of our people and endangered the perpetuity of our constitutional union. Witli high regard I am your obedient servant, Jeffe'n Davis. From Professor De Bow, Sup. U. S. Census. Washington June 16, 1853. Dear Sir, — I agree in the principles which you assume in the conduct of the slavery argument, in the introductory chapter of your work. They are new and striking and considering the great and overruling importance of the question and the ability wilh which they are j)ressed must excite wide interest and attention. Your obedient servant, Dr. J. H. Van Evrie. I. D. B. De Bow. From Hon. ]). S. Dickinson^ Ex U. S. Senator. BtNGHAMTON, N. Y. Jult/ 28, 18.53. Ml/ Dear Sir, — I have perused witii great interest and satisfaction your introduc- tory chapter upon "Negroes and Negro Slaveiy" and rejoice in believing that a subject which has been so little understood is finally abjut to receive the exposition which the best interests of society demands. This specimen of your work gives evidence of deep ethnological research and consideration, and the bold and masterly hand with which you strip olf the disguises furnished by the spurious philanthrophist and true demagogue, renders it ten fold more acceptable and attractive. Such a work was demanded by all the friends of lational progress, for the influence it must exert in elevating the Caucasian race .to a proper conception of their mission, and turning them from the contemplation of casting down barriers erected by the Almighty. I am, with high regard, yours truly. Dr. J. H. Van Evrie. D. S. Dickinson. From JVew York JVational Democrat, Dr. Van Evrie, of Washington, has in press a work of four hundred pages, enti- tled " Negroes and Negro Slavery," the introductory chapter of which we have received, in a neat pamphlet. This introduction discusses, wilh great ability and jiower, the causes of the popular delusion on the subject of slavery. Physiology and history are summoned as witnesses to prove the natural inferiority of the negro race, and to prove that it is incapable of existing under circumstances of entire i-quality with the Caucasian race. The learned author sho\\s conclusively that the condition of the negro in our Southern States is much more natuial than the condi- tion of the woiking class of England, or of all Europe. We have been so much pleased wilh the lollowing comparison between the English Nobleman and the Southern Planter, that we give it enVire in our editorial columns : rt PllEFACE. If some one ignorant of the real nature of epilepsy slioultl, on witnessing a case, go away and write a book describing the contortions of the muscles, foaming at the mouth, distortions of features, &c. that ordinarily attend a paroxysm of that complaint, those who might read it and were as ignorant of the disease, as the writer himself, would doubtless imagine it a condition of ex- treme suffering, when in reality, there is none whatever, for the simple reason that the patient is wholly unconscious: but such a book would as truly describe the real condition of the epileptic as the books attacking American Slavery, describe the real condi- tion of the slave. And if some one were to reply to it, ad- mitting that there was suffering in epilepsy^ but that it was less, or of a different character from that assumed in such book, it would go just as far in explaining the real condition of the epi- leptic patient as the books written in defence of Southern Slavery do in explaining the real condition of the slave. This may be still further illustrated by a certain famous or ia- famous negro novel recently written to describe Southern Society. The writer represents her negro characters as white people, and their masters as Devils, or as extra human; one just as true to nature and fact as the other, for certain it is, if there are beings in our times capable of enslaving people like ourselves, such beings must be extra human. Southern writers, however, indignant at these false representa- tions of Southern Society, attempt replies to this book; but admitting the theory of the writer that the negro is a black white man, or that Southern Slaves are people like ourselves, are, 1 of course, unable to point out its falsehoods to the rest of the Avoilil. Thus, the illusion, misconception, or false perception of fact goes on; and as those ignorant of epilepsy, pity the imaginary sufferings of the patients, so the North ignorant of the real nature of the negro, continues to pity the imaginary sufferings of the slave; while the South knoivs, from actual experience, that not only is there entire absence of suffering, but that this condition assures to the race a greater measure of happiness than ever before known in its history. We are now in the middle of the nineteenth century, and as a purely scientific question, aside even from the momentous consequences wrapped up in it, it is time that the popular fallacy in regard to the negro w^as exploded. Hitherto the specific character of the negro has not been investigated; indeed the whole question of the human races is yet to be explored. To be sure, Buffon, Blumenback, Summering, the Cuviers, Lawrence, Pritchard, Agassiz, Hamilton Smith and others, have professed to investigate the subject; but their researches, however accurate or valuable, have been limited to externals, or to mere zoological data; while the physiological and psycological facts, which can alone determine the real character of the several races, and their true relations to each other, have not been enquired into. The author of this publication has devoted several years to this enquiry, especially to that portion of the general subject, embracing the specific character of the negro, and the natural relations of whites and negroes; the results of w^hich he is now prepared to lay before the public. Stripping off the skin of the negro, he proposes to demonstrate to the senses, as well as the reason, that he is not a black white man, or a man merely with a black skin, but a different and INFERIOR SPECIES OF MAN ; — that this difference is radical, and total, and relatively, as great in the primordial arrangement of ele- mentary particles, or the single globule of blood, as in the color of the skin, or the grosser facts, palpable to the senses; — that it is original, invariable, and indestructible, as long as the pres- ent order of creation itself lasts ; — that the physical structure of the race is necessarily and perpetually linked with corresponding faculties, capabilities, wants, necessities, in short, with a specific nature, and is thus designed by the Almighty Creator for corres- ponding purposes, or a social position harmonizing with those wants, etc. ; — that therefore all the charges against the social system of the South, being based on false assumptions, are them- selves necessarily false; — that so-called slavery is neither a "wrong" nor an "evil," nor is its extension dangerous, but that it is a normal condition, a natural relation, based upon the " higher law," in harmony with the order, progress, and general well-being of the superior one, and absolutely essential to the very existence of the inferior race. In the discussion of this subject, of course no issue is made w4th Abolitionism, or with abolitionists per se. They but em- brace notions common throughout the North, and while made up of materials not likely to disturb the peace or order of society, unknown to themselves perform an important public service; for their very efforts \o pradicaUze what are generally admitted to be abstract truths, serve only to show that these abstractions are themselves falsehoods. It was designed to publish in book form, but by the advice of friends the present mode has been adopted as the best and readi- est means of getting the results of these investigations before the public. The present number, though giving a brief summary of all the points discussed, is merely preliminary, and will be followed by another, about the first of January, detailing the facts on which present assumptions are based. After that a number will be issued monthly, until the whole vs^ork, embracing some 400 pages octavo, is completed. In conclusion, the writer begs to say to the reader, that he puts forward no claims to mere scholarship or fine writing; that in the exposition, the test and demonstration of facts of transcendent importance, not only to twenty millions of white men and the cause of civilization on this continent, but to the well-being, the very existence of the inferior race in our midst, he is anxious only to be understood; while indiflferent„ perhaps even careless, as regards style or mere forms of expression. But how- ever defective in a literary point of view, or however he may fail from want of ability to impress these facts, and the conclusions that legitimately belong to them, upon the minds of others, or whatever resistance ignorance, superstition, popular credulity, or the mental habitudes of classes of men may oppose to their recep- tion, he cannot doubt the final result,— for they are truths eternal and indestructible as time itself ;— and moreover, it is the interest of every patriotic citizen and true American, North and South, to accept them. NEGROES AND NEGRO "SLAVERY." THE FIRST, AN INFERIOR RACE— THE LATTER, ITS NORMAL CONDITION. INTRODUCTORY CIIAPTEE. CAUSES OF POPULAR DELUSION ON THE SUBJECT. General ignorance of organization — Ahsurd notions of equality or "equal rights" — Mistaking the permanent condition of inferior for primitive or transition stages of superior Races — Ignorance of physiological law of inter- union; results of the law, Jlmerican Democracy — Departures or evasions, European Royalism — Violations, JMulattoism or Hybridism — Confounding natural imth artificial distinctions or the laws of nature ivilh tlie results of social and governmental contrivances — Consequences — Conclusion. The origin of mankind, their descent from a single pair, (Adam and Eve,) thus constituting a single race or species; or whether in common with the animals and plants that surround them, they were (originally) created in several localities or centres of existence; and therefore are made up of several distinct species; though long a question of interest to a few scientific in- quirers, has only quite recently been of general interest to mankind at large. It suited the political interests of European governments to confound the distinctions of classes with those of nature — the results of social or political contrivances with the works of the Creator ; while the general belief or the general understanding of the Mosaic account of Creation, together with the almost universal ignorance prevailing on this subject, has been sufficient to determine the question theoretically in favor of the common origin, and there- fore the common equality, of all mankind, however widely separated in fact, or however contradictory to experience and common sense. Thus it has only been, within a few years past, that the accumulation of scientific facts have become so overwhelming, and their reconciliation with the single-pair theory so utterly impossible, that naturalists have been compelled to dissent from it altogether, and to follow the facts of science, with the confident assurance, however, that that which is really true is best, and should be known. Among those whose love of truth is sufficient to overcome preconceived opinion, is an eminent Boston professor; but even this gentleman, with all his learning, furnishes another example so often witnessed among all classes of men, of shrinking from declaring the whole truth, when such declaration contradicts re- ceived opinion, or conflicts with popular prejudice. While presenting facts and arguments that demonstrate, beyond doubt, that man forms no exception to those general laws that govern the organic world, and must therefore have come into being in several localities or centres of existence, like the animals and plants that surround him, Professor Agassiz yet seems especially anxious to declare that diversity of origin has no necessary connexion with diversity of species; or that while men were originally created in separate centres of existence, they may yet constitute only a single and uniform race. "We do not desire -to contest, or contradict, any opinion of so eminent a personage, or of a man who has done so much, and is still doing so much for the cause of science, and therefore for the cause of humanity; but we cannot avoid saying that such a supposition is as unphilosophical as it is untrue in fact. There are but few animals of the same species, of the higher organized classes, on different continents, or at remote distances, and those most probably carried there by man's migrations. Why create in separate localities at all, except to conform to and harmonize with the external world about them ? Why, above all, create man a single and uniform species in separate localities, with ample powers of migration, which enables him to transfer himself from one of these centres of existence to another with perfect ease 1 Would not such be indeed a work of supererogation 1 Technically, or in a certain sense, the question of origin, it may be said, does not o-overn that of the diversity of the human races; but as the latter is the only one of practical importance, and the former of no consequence whatever, except as a means for determining these diversities, it is unfortunate that Professor Agassiz did not rise above the prejudices of Boston, and boldly grapple with the real question at once. The question of the origin of mankind, isolated from that of races — the specific differences, and the relative capabilities of the several forms of man— IS as perfectly useless to mankind at large, as would be a knowledge of the first moments of his own existence to the individual. The individual man needs to know who are his parents, his brethren, his relationship to those about him ; for on this knowledge depend his duties, as it also involves his rif^hts. While, where he was born, or when he was born; at what moment, or°inwhat house; unless as the means for determining his individuality, is of no manner of consequence. So, too, with the several races of men; when they were created — whether six thousand years ago, or sixty thousand years ago— in the centre of Asia, or in the several localities where history finds them— is of no consequence whatever, except as the means of determin- ing their specj/ic c/taracter; while, on a knowledge of the latter depend the ri °hts, as well as the duties, of the several races to each other; and with our- stilves, surrounded or mixed up with two separate and distinct races, one in- terlaced, as it were, with our whole social fabric, and the other at no distant day thrcdlcnivg to become so, this knowledge is of transcendent importance. The Creator has hidden from the individual bolli tlie beginning and llie end of his existence. We see and feel the wisdom and benelicence of tiiis provision. Were it otherwise, could we know the first moments of "pulin:? infancy," and the last moments of "mortal agony," life would be divested of all its blessings ; but while this knowledge is forever hidden from us, while the individual man can never know his actual origin, of himself, or by him- self, such are the laws and relations, or conditions of human existence, that his actual identity, his family relationship, all that is necessary to his happi- ness, his rights, or the performance of his duties to those of his blood, are as perfectly attainable as if he had been endowed with matured reason at the moment of birth. The individual is a type of his race ; and whatever is true, or natural, or inherent in the individual man, is also common to the race or equally true of the aggregate. Thus, while the race may never know its ori- gin or starting point, any more than its death or final termination, it can, nevertheless, determine with as entire certainty its identity, its specific charac- ter, its relationship to other races, and the rights as well as responsibilities that are involved, as can the individual man his family relationship. And it is as entirely within the scope of our knowledge to understand and define our true relations to the other races of this continent, to determine what are our own rights, as well as what are our duties to the Negro or Indian inhabiting It with us, as can an individual those rights or duties that attach to his indi- vidual existence. Commencing with the simpler forms of organized existence, and ascending in the scale till reaching the Caucasian man, (the most elaborate in his struc- ture, and therefore the highest endowed in his faculties,) all intermediate in the series, whether human or brute, Mongolian or Negro, Ouran-Outan, or Chimpanzee, are alike subject to classification, as well as the lowest and simplest forms of organic life. Indeed a classification founded upon positive facts, and a true knowledge of the specific differences in human races, is a work of less difliiculty than it is in the simpler forms; for the superadded moral nature of the former furnishes additional facts for our guidance. Throughout the whole world of organic existence there is a perfect adaptation of means and ends, and the structural arrangement of each species, or each original and permanent creation, is in perfect harmony with its facuhies and the'purposes assigned to it by the Creator. This is a truth equally palpable m the organization of the individual; those organs, most elaborate and com- plex in their structure, are those performing the most important functions. Thus the heart, the centre of the vital functions, is comparatively simple in its structure ; while the brain, the centre of the animal, as well as the intel- lectual functions, is wonderfully complex. Thus, too, the sense of sight is / performed through an exceedingly complex and exquisitely delicate apparatus, V while the organism of locomotion is comparatively simple. This great\nd fundamental law of organized life pervades the whole world of animated being, and serves as a positive and unmistakable test or admea- surement of the character and relations of all the innumerable series that com- pose it. In precise proportion to the complexity of an organ in the human 8 body s the importance of function; precisely too as is the complexity c^ structural arrangement in anv species, whether human or animal, so, too, if the superiority of faculties in such species, and elevation of purposes assigned to it by the Creator, in nothing, perhaps, is this truth more palpable than in the case of woman; who, with a far more elaborate and exquisitely organized nervous system than man, has also finer moral perceptions, as well as more delicate sensibilities, while her muscular system and organs of locomotion, necessary alone to mere physical power, are infinitely inferior to the other sex. The facts of organic life, its laws of development, its necessities, and in the more elevated forms of the human races, its rights, as well as the duties that attach to it, that are indeed inseparable from it, are so little studied or under- stood even by educated persons, that nothing is more common than for such to lecture the public on the duty, of forcing their civilization or modes of action on other races. Thus an American Secretary of State will talk learn" edly about some races who, amalgamating with others, beget a mongrel breed* utterly good for nothing, while others with an aptitude for amalgamation, beget a more vigorous and progressive race, than either of the originals. How near a truth, and yet what an immense distance from it! Had the orator of the Colonization Society said that amalgamation with separate races of men, as ourselves and the Negro, is followed by a mongrel brood, however superior mentally to the Negro, yet vastly inferior to the white, and as certain to perish as the mule, or any other hybrid generation ; but that amalgamation with the Irishman or German, or any other variety of our own species or race, would be followed by a more vigorous stock than ehher of the originals, he would have declared an eternal truth. But we may also say, had he known this truth, he would not have been the orator of the Colonization Society, or if so, his lec- ture would have been very different indeed from that absurd effort to convince his audience that they were bound to go to work, and compel the different and inferiorhj organized Negro to perform the functions of the Caucasian ; that two widely separated organizations, differently endowed and differently designed by Almighty power, should be compelled by human force to exercise the same faculties, and perform the same purposes: a supposition about as rational, and as much dependent on fact, as that a watch and saw-mill are equally designed to measure time, or that elephants and mice should catch their prey, or supply themselves with food in exactly the same manner. Not many centuries since, ignorance of organization doomed women to a degraded, almost brutal position; and at this moment, throughout Christen- dom, with the exception of the United States, the rights, as also the duties of her sex, are imperfectly comprehended. Thus an Enghsh or European peasant will harness his wife with his donkey, and compel her to perform the grossest drudgery ; and a European gentleman will drive from her seat in the coach or car a delicate and fragile woman, and with equal readiness grovel in the dust before another, when he discovers that she is a Q,ueen or a Duchess, though the first may be of his own race and the latter the wife of a Haytien Negro, or the daughter of a Musquito Indian. On the contrary, an American, no matter what his social position, or political importance, that 9 would refuse to give up his seat to a woman, however humble her condition, would be universally despised — indeed would lose caste as a man. This diRerence between an American and a European is no accident or caprice of public manners, but only the result of higher intelligence in the case of the ibrmer. It is not to the individual woman that respect is paid, but to the sex — to that delicate and fragile organization which appeals to the noblest instincts of the rougher and stronger manhood, and is based on clearer con- ceptions, and a wider knowledge of the true relations that naturally exist between the sexes. It is often said that Christianity has changed the relations and elevated the position of the female sex; but it would be more correct to say that increased knowledge of her true nalurc has thus elevated her. In barbarous times, even among the Romans, she was but little better than a slave, doomed to perform the drudgery of labor: she was rarely permitted, even in the patrician class, to be the companion, and never the equal of man : but with the increase of knowledge, with clearer conceptions of her real nature, her delicately organized nervous system, and her feeble muscular powers, her relations to the other sex have undergone an important change : thus it may be said, that in precise proportion to the intelligence of a nation will be its regard and respect for its women. The same ignorance of organi- zation, which in its blind fanaticism would compel the Negro, or would seek ^ to compel the Negro, with his different and inferior organization, to perform the functions of the white man, also busies itself about "woman's rights," and true to the instincts of barbarism, would force her to perform the func- tions of the other sex — to be captains of steamboats and bricklayers, as well as housekeepers, or directors of the nursery — indeed the advocates of " human rights," and "woman's rights," are from very necessity associated together, and the delusion in one case is certain also to exist in the other. In Europe, except perhaps in France, the masses, kept in profound ignorance of their own nature, look upon those v/ho govern them, their Kings and nobles, as a superior creation ; and many amongst ourselves with somewhat of the same notions hanging about their minds, think that equality or " equal rights" is some abstract principle that has been discovered in modern times, and capable of universal application: thus they are shocked at the (to them) seeming injustice of withholding it from negroes and women, and insist on its immedi- ate application to them. Instead of "equality" being a principle, or modern discovery, it is simply a fact which has existed from the first creation of man. / All men created equal, or all the forms of existence that are organized alike.N are equal: thus "equality " is a fact, while those created unlike, are unequal ; and to seek to contradict this, to force the Negro to an "equality " with the white man, or to compel the woman to exercise the rights, and consequently to perform the duties of the other sex, is equally a violation of the fact of "equality," as it is an outrage on nature. Each spicific organization or form of existence, with its distinct physical structure, is also endowed with specific or distinct faculties, and designed by the Creator for spccijic purposes. To disregard this, to demand the same rights, and compel the same duti»^s. to say tlmt the inferiorly organized and 2 10 inferiorly endowed Ne^o shall be a member of Congress, while the svperiarly organized white man shall black boots; or the former a professor in college, while the latter hoes cotton ; or that a system shall be brought to bear upon them to force an equality, when nature has made none, and permits none, is a contradiction of all the laws of organic existence, and as entirely beyond the power of man to effect, as the attempt to do so is repugnant to reason. So too with woman: with a distinct organization, endowed with distinct and peculiar faculties, and designed for distinct and peculiar purposes, those wlio would seek to force her out of, or beyond her sphere— to compel her to study law, or command a steamboat, as well as nurse a baby, or cook a jjnner — would ecjually violate nature, and inflict an outrage upon her. Each sex, like each species, has with its peculiar organization distinct duties and purposes to fulfil ; and the harmony and well-being of all can only be accom- plished when these are understood and acted upon; and when men become sufficiently acquainted with themselves to know that all of the same race or s})ecics are erjital in fact, they will insist upon "equal rights;" or that the Ne