Africanus Mar. 3, 1790
MR. FENNO,
I AM a sheep-hairy negro, the son of an African man and woman ; by a train of fortunate events I was let free, when very young, and by the interposition of the most generous of mankind, I have received a common English school education, and have been instructed in the Christian religion─ I am master of a trade whereby I get a comfortable living : My leisure time I employ in reading, it is my delight, and I am encouraged by several spirited, noble and generous American freeman, who are pleased to praise me for employing my time so much more rationally (as they say) than most of the white men who are in the same station of life that I am : And do not consider me as the link in the creation by which the monkey hangs to the gentleman. I esteem it among the blessings of my situation, that by my industry as a tradesman, I am enabled to purchase your interesting publication, and by my assiduity as a student I am enabled to read it with profit : But I fear all my application has not made me equal to the task I have undertaken, of penning a letter, which shall appear to you worthy of a place in you next number ; the arduous task of appearing as an opponent of the philosophic Rusticus. ─
Had this philosopher advanced any thing new I should not dare to step forward; but to his present hackney’d theme, I shall oppose the arguments of such as have written against the idea of out inferior nature, particularly Mr. Clarkson :
The philosopher’s chain is a rusty affair ; I shall take little notice of his bulls and wild ducks ─ I would willingly come to the point : Rusticus goes upon the principle which Lord Kaims labored very hard to establish, that the variety of colour, features, &c. in the human species, proved them to be derived from various stocks, and not as the old fashioned erroneous, scriptures assert, all the descendants of Adam. His next is the principle of links─ in which if I mistake not his idea─ he and his brethren of European extraction, stand or hang inferior to none but angels─ to them follow the other nations of the earth. ─As, effeminate Asiatics─ long haired savages of America─ sheep-hairy Africans─ Africans with wolfes muzzles─ and next I suppose the various kinds of the monkey, &c. &c. ─Now if I can prove by the assistance aforementioned, that the first is a false principle, and that Europeans, Asiatics, Americans and Africans are all the descendants of Noah─ The second principle will fall of course, at least so far, that because I have a black skin (tho by the by my skin is already whiter than my father’s was) flat nosem thick lips and sheep-hair, I shall not be hook’d on at the lower end of the chain of human beings.
It is really amusing, not to say laughable, to see with what eagerness Lord Kaims pursues his favorite discriminating plan : I will instance one of his proofs that there are different species of men by nature totally distinct from each other. “ The Giagas” says this great critic “a fierce and wandering nation in the heart of Africa” (only notice what a fruitful and convenient soil Africa is for monsters) “are in effect land pirates at wat with all the world. They indulge in polygamy, but bury all their children the moment of birth, and chuse in their stead the most promising children taken in war. There is no principle among animals more prevalent than affection to their offspring : Supposing the Giagas to be born without hands or feet, would they be more distinguishable from the rest of mankind?” ─So blindly did the Author of the elements of criticism pursue his favorite system, that he never considered that if the Giagas destroyed all their children, and adopted the children o various strange nations, of course this distinct species of men were extinct after the first generation, and all the various nations that they incorporated with themselves, were precisely of the same extraordinary, distinct and monstrous nature. ─ So idle are the speculations of the wisest men when they wander from the pure light of reason and religion.
I shall now bring forward in as concise a manner as possible, a few of the arguments made use of by Mr. Clarkson, in opposition to the main principle of Rusticus.
The first argument by which it is attempted to be proved “that the Africans are an inferior link in the chain of nature,” is the supposed inferiority of their capacities ─The argument is so weak it does not deserve notice, neither would it become me. ─ the second is drawn from color and features, nay, “even the hair of their heads is brought into the account” ─My parents born in Africa, have not the white skin, the rosy cheek, the prominent nose and the black teeth of Rusticus, there are not only a distinct, but an inferior species of animal : The worthy author before me (Mr. Clarkson) says “It is an universal law, observable throughout the whole creation that if two animals of a different species propagate, their offspring is unable to continue its own species. By this admirable law, the different species are preserved distinct. Now if we apply this law to those of the human kind, who are said to be of a distinct species from each other, it immediately fails. The mulatto is as capable of continuing his species as his father ; a clear and irrefragable proof that the scripture account of the creation is true, and that “God, who hath made the world, hath made of one blood all the nations of men that dwell on all the face of the earth.” This law of nature will not suit Rusticus─ who says, “nature goes not from one species of animal abruptly to the next : There are beings who separate one sort from the other and partake in their form and habit something of both ; these I call intermediate beings” ─ Nature knows no such intermediate beings ─ the animals Rusticus enumerates (such of them as we know to exist) are distinct species of animals, and are divided by the above mentioned law.
If mankind are from one stock they consequently had but one colour, and was that white? No─ We have every reason to believe that it was a dark olive. ─ Then is Rusticus as far from the original colour as I am. It will now be asked what has caused the various appearances of men at present─ I answer form my book “ a co-operation of certain causes, which have an effect upon the human frame, and have the power of changing it more or less from its primitive appearance, as they are more or less numerous or powerful than those, which acted upon the frame of man in the first seat of his habitation.” ─ Climate appears to have the principal share in the variety of colour─ Anatomical experiments have established it as fact, that the seat of colour is the corpus mucosum, which is found to vary with the climate throughout the world.
I must refer my reader to Mr. Clarkson’s essay on the slavery and commerce of the human species for a statement of facts, and arguments that will remove every doubt on this subject, and convince him that out colour is no proof that we are an inferior link in the great chain of creation.
I fear I have already made my letter too long─ I hope Mr. Fenno will correct my inaccuracy (if he thinks my attempt to vindicate those of my colour fit for the public eye) and excuse my artless arrangement of my subject. ─ I will conclude by answering the last question of Rusticus. No human law can by intermixing species overthrow the fixed order of nature─ but the American and the African are on species─ The law of nature declares it─ And I, a sheep-hairy African negro, being free and in some degree enlightened, feel myself equal to the duties of a spirited, noble, and generous American freeman.
[Note: To read the letter of Rusticus in response to which the above was written, click here:
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030483/1790-02-24/ed-1/seq-4/%5D
Africanus (March 03, 1790) Letter in the Gazette of the United States. No. XCIII, p. 372
Original printing at:
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030483/1790-03-03/ed-1/seq-4/
Genre: Epistolary
Language : English
Baquaqua : Afro-Diasporic Text Corpus 