of the Negro's ardent friend, Dr. Henry M. Field: "The whole race
(in Massachusetts) has remained on one dead level of mediocrity."
("Sunny Skies and Dark Shadows," p. 144). Statistics, however,
tell a story far less favourable still. See _infra_, pp. 249f.
[6] The following example, in itself not uninteresting, has
fallen under our own observations: At Columbia, Mo., in a
well-known and highly reputed family, the father exemplifies the
brunette and the mother the blonde type, each in its extremest
form; the son repeats the father, and a daughter the mother,
exactly; the other daughter is an exquisite chataine, the mean of
her parents. Compare Mendel's formula for the transmission of
parental qualities, which DeVries has now made famous.
Perhaps one of the most unerring indications of the native capacities
and tendencies of a race is to be found in its ethnic religion, its
mythology, its childlike, untutored attitude towards the riddles of the
universe. For there can be but little or no question of outside
influence or unequal opportunity. The sun, the moon, the stars, the
firmament, the ocean, the plains, the mountains, the forests, the
rivers, the seasons, eclipses and precessions, day and night, morning
and evening, fire and frost, ice and vapour, wind and cloud, thunder
and lightning, life and death, health and disease, dreams and
shadows--all these multiform materials of construction have offered
themselves in practically equivalent quantity and quality to the
phantasy of every race and every age. The reactions have varied widely,
and have boldly characterized the genius of each people. Tell me of
their gods, and I will tell you of the worshippers. Tried by this
standard, the case seems decided, even before it reaches the threshold
of the court. For, putting aside the sublime and awful monotheism of
the Hebrew, can any one for an instant set in line the august and
imposing, if overgrown and superluxuriant, mythology of India, the
stern and severe and tremendous religions of the Nile and the
Euphrates, the sad and solemn but high-hearted and deep-thoughted
musings of Scandinavia and Teuton-land, the infinitely varied and
infinitely beautiful mythopoeia of Hellas, or even the colorless but
sharp-lined abstractions of Italy, with the degraded fetichism, the
stock-and stone-service of the Niger and the Congo?
What we may call the historical argument, just presented, finds strong
and decisive confirmation, even though it needs none, in the
craniology, the physiognomy, and the general anatomy of the Negro.[7]
Take him at his very best--does any one believe that the Olympian Zeus,
an Apollo Belvedere, a Melian Venus, a Capitoline Juno, a Hermes of
Praxiteles, or a Sistine Madonna could ever by any possibility have
emerged from the most fertile fancy of an "Old Master" of the Congo?
Perfect his type as you will, even as you perfect the type of a flower
or a bird, does not the Sudanese remain at immense remove from the
European? Of course, it is always possible to contend that beauty is
only subjective, any way, that the hair and brow and nose and lips and
jaw and ear of the West African would be just as beautiful as those of
the Greek or Anglo-American, if we only thought so. But being what we
are, we cannot think so now and still less the further we advance in
organic development. Moreover, with equal reason we might say that the
tiger-lily was as beautiful as the rose, the hippopotamus as pretty as
the squirrel; nay more, we might abolish all distinctions of quality,
and identify each pair of contradictories.
[7] For the details of this argument, see _infra_, pp. 46f. _et
passim_.
Does some one say that physical beauty is a poor, inferior thing at
best--that beauty of soul is alone sufficient and only desirable? We
deny it outright. Beauty of form and colour has its own high and
inalienable and indefectible rights, its own profound significance for
the history alike of nature and of man. Even if the intermingling of
bloods wrought no other wrong than the degradation of bodily beauty,
the coarsening of feature and blurring of coloration, it would still be
an unspeakable outrage, to be deprecated and prevented by all means in
our power. Moreover, we hold that every such degeneration of facial
type will drag along with it inevitably a corresponding declension of
spirit. Criminology is confident in its claim of some deep-seated,
however obscure, relation between aberrations from the physical and
from the mental norm. Though there may be many illustrious exceptions,
which our defective knowledge cannot explain, yet the broad general
principle may still be maintained:
_For of the soule the bodie forme doth take;
For soule is forme, and doth the bodie make._
Any general declination from type in the one, while it may not cause,
will yet infallibly argue a corresponding declination from type in the
other.
It is futile to reply that our own ancestors and the ancestors of the
Greeks and all other historical peoples were once savages--were once
not even men, and hardly manlike. Very true; but why stop here? Why not
boldly urge that Plato might have traced back his lineage to an
amoeba,--yea, to star-dust and curdling ether? True, perhaps; but
what of it? We may be cousins to the worm, at the billionth remove; but
we are not brothers. We grant the abstract possibility that the bee or
the ant may harbour in itself higher potentialities for development
than even man himself. We even think it wholesome to bear this thought
in mind. Nevertheless, such may-be's lie infinitely beyond the range of
the practical vision; they cannot enter into our calculations of
futurity. So, too, we grant that, in the centuries of milleniums to
come, it is possible that the Negro's nature may receive some
surpassing uplift: he may sprout eagle pinions, and far outfly the
wildest dreams of Caucasian fancy. But such possibilities are
altogether too remote for our reckoning now; they are decimals in the
hundredth place. We may and we must neglect them, as we neglect the
likelihood of a concussion of our planet with some extinct vagrant sun.
We must act in the living present, and at present there rolls between
the historical development of the black and the white species an
impassable river of ten thousand years. Possibly the former might catch
up in the course of ages, if only the latter stood still. But will they
stand still? Can they afford to wait? Is there not every reason to hope
that they will forge steadily ahead and widen still more and more the
interval between? Is not such the obvious teaching of history? Does not
the tree of life bud and bloom and put forth new boughs at the top? For
our part, we believe in the Overman, Him who is to come--not, however,
from the lower, but from the higher, humanity. Such, at least, seems of
necessity our working hypothesis.
It would be unfair, however, to close this part of the discussion
without noticing what our adversaries have been able to produce contra.
In _The Souls of Black Folk_, Prof. W. E. B. Dubois, of Atlanta, Ga.,
tells the tale, and it could not be better told, of the contributions
made by the Negro to the civilization of our Union:
"Your country? How came it yours? Before the Pilgrims landed we were
here. Here we have brought our three gifts and mingled them with yours:
a gift of story and song--soft, stirring melody in an ill-harmonized
and unmelodious land; the gift of sweat and brawn to beat back the
wilderness, conquer the soil, and lay the foundations of this vast
economic empire two hundred years earlier that your weak hands could
have done it; the third, a gift of the Spirit" (p. 262). The second of
these "gifts" we dismiss at once; the Negro's labour was not voluntary,
and was not a "gift" in any sense.[8] As well say the mule made "gift
of sweat and brawn to beat back the wilderness." As to the "Spirit,"
Prof. Dubois means that the spectacle of African slavery aroused the
"Spirit" in the people of our land, particularly in the
Abolitionists--"out of the nation's heart we have called all that was
best to throttle and subdue all that was worst" (p. 263). Queer "gift",
indeed! By the same token, the poverty, the distress, the injustice,
the iniquity, the intemperance, even the crime--all that mar our
civilization have been making it "the gift of the Spirit;" for have
they not aroused our sense of right and duty and devotion to the good
of others? Have they not called out of the nation's heart all that was
best to throttle and subdue all that was worst? The gift of song, of
the plaintive Negro melody--we freely allow it. How much of the same
is really the product of the Negro soul seems to be a question by no
means easy to answer. But let us allow the Negroid the benefit of the
doubt and accord him the fullest credit. We are not musician enough
to appraise this "gift" properly, nor yet to reckon its possible
significance for the future of American music. But at the very most, it
seems to us that this worth and this significance cannot be very high;
especially since a whole generation has come and gone without any sign
of larger development, but instead, Dubois himself being witness, with
many signs of corruption and degradation. Even then, according to the
rating of the chief of Negroids, their contribution to our civilization
has been quite inconsiderable.
[8] Even as a contribution, this labour was never necessary, and
is notoriously becoming more and more dispensable, even where it
is not already turning into an impediment.
* * * * *
(N.B.--It is not, however, the sociologist of Atlanta, but the seer of
Concord, who has recognized most distinctly and celebrated with
proudest pomp of mixed metaphor the clairvoyance and spiritual
superiority of the tropical.
_Dove beneath the vulture's beak._
In the oft quoted "Voluntaries" we read:
_He has avenues to God
Hid from men of Northern brain,
Far beholding, without cloud,
What these with slowest steps attain._
Inasmuch, however, as these "avenues" of the far-sighted African are
nothing but the blind alleys of Voodooism and devil worship, it may be
just as well that they remain "hid" from the slow-paced European.)
* * * * *
In the _Booklovers' Magazine_ for July, 1903, the same writer returns
to this subject in an article on "_Possibilities of the Negro--The
Advance Guard of the Race._" The conspicuous position and, the full
illustrations given this paper show clearly at what a positive
advantage the Black man stands in the world of literature--simply
because he is black. We happen to know that the article has made some
impression. Ten names are presented of Negroids that have done
respectable work in various fields of intellectual labour. If Mr.
Washington is easily the Herakles in this latter-day crew of Argo, Dr.
Dubois, who has mustered them, is himself certainly Jason, the
eleventh. But of these eleven we may at once dismiss eight, for their
abundant white blood is apparent in their pictures and is not denied.
Only the other three are claimed as "black"; pure black is not said,
perhaps is not meant. These seem to be the electrician, the
mathematician, the poet. For none of these can be claimed any very high
order of merit; the light by which they shine conspicuous among their
fellows would not illustrate them very especially among the Whites.
That such abilities should occasionally show themselves, even in a
quite inferior race, ought surely to be expected and to arouse the
wonder of no one. The really significant thing is that eight out of
eleven of these champions are confessedly of mixed blood; only 27 per
cent. are "black." But these "Blacks" form 80 per cent. of the total
Negroid population. Hence, in proportion to numbers, it appears that
the Mulattoes are represented nearly eleven times as often as the
"Blacks." In the face of such a fact,[9] it seems vain to deny that the
mixed blood is notably more intelligent than the pure black; the
necessary inference is that the white blood with which it was mixed is
far more intelligent still.
[9] Established in the most conclusive fashion by the patriotic
and scholarly Crogman's "Progress of a Race" (1902). On glancing
through the long gallery of notable Negroids therein assembled,
one perceives instantly that the Mulatto is greatly predominant.
The reader may naturally ask, Why devote space to such trivial
arguments as those quoted, since they tell plainly, where they tell at
all, against and not for the cause they would support? We answer, that
our treatment must be thorough, if it be worth anything; that we desire
to represent our opponents at their very best, and as far as possible
in their own words; and that the weakness of their position is most
clearly seen in their own efforts at defence.
The details of the anatomical argument, which Darwin said would
undoubtedly lead the naturalist to classify Negro and European as
distinct species, are matters of readily accessible knowledge. They
have been presented frequently and with telling force. That in
particular the cranial, the facial, and the appendicular skeletons of
the dolichocephalic West African (the purest, the lowest, and the
prevalent type on the plantation) deviate sensibly from the highest
human towards the quadrumanal stamp, has been the common observation of
naturalists from Blumenbach to Ratzel; nor can this have escaped the
notice of intelligent and unbiased laymen.
Nevertheless, it may be well to record the authoritative statement made
by A. H. Keane, professor of Hindustani, University College, London, in
the article "Negro," in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, Vol. XVII.[10]
[10] For a fuller statement of some particulars, see Chapter
Four.
"But wherever found in a comparatively pure state, as on the coast of
Guinea (here apparently is to be met the most pronounced Negro type
proper yet discovered), in the Gaboon, along the lower Zambesi, and in
the Benua and Shari basins, the African aborigines present almost a
greater uniformity of physical and moral type than any of the other
great divisions of mankind. By the nearly unanimous consent of
anthropologists this type occupies at the same time the lowest position
in the evolutionary scale, thus affording the best material for the
comparative study of the highest anthropoids and the human species. The
chief points in which the Negro either approaches the _Quadrumana_ or
differs most from his congeners are:
(1) The abnormal length of the arm, which in the erect position
sometimes reaches the knee-pan, and which on an average exceeds that of
the Caucasian by about 2 inches.
(2) Prognathism, or projection of the jaws (index number of facial
angle about 70, as compared with the Caucasian 82).
(3) Weight of brain, as indicating cranial capacity, 35 ounces (highest
gorilla 20, average European 45).
(4) Full black eye, with black iris and yellowish sclerotic coat, a
very marked feature.
(5) Short flat snub nose, deeply depressed at the base or frontal
suture, broad at extremity, with dilated nostrils and concave ridge.
(6) Thick protruding lips, plainly showing the inner red surface.
(7) Very large zygomatic arches--high and prominent cheek bones.
(8) Exceedingly thick cranium, enabling the Negro to butt with the head
and resist blows which would inevitably break any ordinary European's
skull.
(9) Correspondingly weak lower limbs, terminating in a broad flat foot
with low instep, divergent and somewhat prehensile great toe, and heel
projecting backwards ("lark heel").
(10) Complexion deep brown or blackish, and in some cases even
distinctly black, due not to any special pigment, as is often supposed,
but merely to the greater abundance of the coloring matter in the
Malphigian mucous membrane between the inner or true skin and the
epidermis or scarf skin.
(11) Short, black hair, eccentrically elliptical or almost flat in
section, and distinctly woolly, not merely frizzly, as Prichard
supposed on insufficient evidence.
(12) Thick epidermis, cool, soft, and velvety to the touch, mostly
hairless, and emitting a peculiar rancid odor, compared by Pruner Bey
to that of the buck goat.[11]
[11] This misfortune should, of itself, be sufficient to settle
the question of social intercourse. The emanation is from certain
overabundant sudorific glands.
(13) Frame of medium height, thrown somewhat out of the perpendicular
by the shape of the pelvis, the spine, the backward projection of the
head, and the whole anatomical structure.
(14) The cranial sutures, which close much earlier in the Negro than in
the other races. To this premature ossification of the skull,
preventing all further development of the brain, many pathologists have
attributed the inherent mental inferiority of the blacks, an
inferiority which is even more marked than their physical differences.
Nearly all observers admit that the Negro child is on the whole quite
as intelligent as those of other human varieties, but that on arriving
at puberty all further progress seems to be arrested. No one has more
carefully studied this point than Filippo Manetta, who, during a long
residence on the plantations of the Southern States of America noted
that 'the Negro children were sharp, intelligent, and full of vivacity,
but on approaching the adult period a gradual change set in. The
intellect seemed to become clouded, animation giving place to a sort of
lethargy, briskness yielding to indolence. We necessarily suppose that
the development of the Negro and White proceeds on different lines.
While with the latter the volume of the brain grows with the expansion
of the brain-pan, in the former the growth of the brain is on the
contrary arrested by the premature closing of the cranial sutures and
lateral pressure of the frontal bone.'" (_La Razza Negra nel suo stato
selvaggio e nella sua duplice condizione di emancipata e di schiava_,
Torino, 1864, p. 20).
This last point is one of such supreme importance that it seems well to
strengthen it by additional testimony. Says the renowned Cesare
Lombroso, in his "_L'Uomo Bianco e L'Uomo di Colore_" (1892), p. 28:
"The development of the African baby is altogether different from ours.
In its first days it does not show the dark color of the adult; the
sutures of the head, which with us close up only late in life, with it
ossify speedily, as in idiots and monkeys, and the anterior sooner than
the posterior. Also its face becomes projecting and prognathous only
after the first dentition; and only after the thirteenth year its head
is seen to grow longer and its skin to grow darker. The same may be
said of the mental (_morale_) development; for the Negro, precisely
like the monkey, shows himself very intelligent up to puberty; but at
that epoch, when our intellect spreads its wings for more daring
flights, he stops and turns backward..." This profoundly significant
arrest of development in the Negro is equally observable in school and
out of it. Among many witnesses, hear one of the most unexceptionable,
J. M. McGovern, in a symposium in the _Arena_ (Vol. 21, p. 439): "My
experience has shown me that, while at the start a negro child often
shows ability quite equal to that of a white child at the same age, yet
if the two children, one white and one coloured, each of average
intelligence, are kept in the same class, in a short period the white
child far outstrips the negro--at least in all those studies where
diligent application and depth of thought are necessary for success."
This testimony seems particularly valuable, since it is based solely on
"experience" and is plainly independent of any doctrine concerning
cranial sutures.
In the work already cited, Lombroso mentions several other minute yet
important particulars in which the Negro anatomy diverges from the
Caucasian toward the simian, but sufficient have been adduced. It may
be replied that each and every one of these divergences may be found
here and there among Caucasians. This is true, but the reply is no
answer. All sorts of reversions to lower type are to be met with in
higher species, but this by no means negatives the fact that some
species are more and some are less developed. The well-formed type
still exists in spite of the occasional malformations. Besides, it is
not the presence of any single indication on which our argument is
grounded, but the simultaneous presence of a great number of
indications. It is these in their entirety that distinguish the Negro
so notably, and remove him toward the anthropoids; and over against
this fact the occasional aberrations among the Whites have no
argumentative weight whatever.
That the Afro-Americans are by no means racially identical, though
racially related, is a fact well known, but worth recalling. Some are
racially very distinctly superior to others, even as were their
ancestors in the African fatherland. On this point we submit the highly
intelligent and unprejudiced testimony of Nathaniel Southgate Shaler,
the well-known professor of geology in Harvard University. In the
_Popular Science Monthly_ (Vol. 57), he attempts a classification of
the Southern Blacks. First come those of the "Guinea type"--the purest
Negro--who are "distinctly of a low type," and who number one-half of
all. Those of the Zulu type are much higher, and number perhaps five
per cent. of all. The Arab Negro, found in Virginia, is of a finer and
more delicate mould, and numbers (say) one per cent. The Red Negroes,
the Bongos and Mittus mentioned by Schweinfurth as "red-brown," like
their native soil (_Heart of Africa_, Vol. I., p. 261), are Albinoidal,
and number perhaps one per cent. The rest are of mixed types. The
Guinea "folk are of essentially limited intelligence;" the Zulus are
fit for anything that ordinary men of our own race can do; the Arabs
are more educable, but of a sombre disposition; the red are inferior.
The Mulattoes are of feeble vitality, rarely surviving beyond middle
age. Professor Shaler's father, an able physician, had never seen a
half-breed more than sixty years old. As the reputation of the Mulatto
is generally bad, perhaps unjustly, "we may welcome the fact that this
mixed stock is likely to disappear" (pp. 33-38). In a later article in
the same volume, Professor Shaler contributes some valuable thoughts
and estimates. Thus: "The simple yet valuable lessons of the
soil-tiller they have had. For the greater number of their race,
particularly those of the Guinea type, this grade of employment is as
high as they may be expected to attain" (p. 148). "I feel safe in
saying, from the basis of personal experience with the negroes, that
somewhere near one-third of them are fit to be trained for mechanical
employment of a fairly high grade" (p. 149). We do not see how it is
possible to call in question either the competence or the
fair-mindedness of this distinguished observer. It is worthy of special
attention that he attests both the hopeless inferiority of the (pure
Negro) Guinea type and at the same time its decisive numerical
preponderance. The real question before us, then, concerns not so much
the Negro in general, of whom there are notably superior varieties, as
the very lowest Negro that West Africa has yet produced.
Here, then, we let the anatomical argument rest for the present. A
minuter treatment will be found in a more appropriate connection in a
following chapter.