Note 16 — CONSIDERATIONS ON THE NEGROE CAUSE, &c.

In looking into Mr. Hume’s Essays, particularly the one of national characters (which I had never seen till after the above argument was finished) I was made happy to observe the ideas of so ingenious a writer corresponding with my own: but as we differ in some respects, and much of what I have suggested has been not at all taken notice of by him, I shall beg leave to insert here what he has said upon the subject. “There is,” says he, “some reason to think, that all nations, which live beyond the polar circles, or betwixt the tropics, are inferior to the rest of the species, and are utterly incapable of all the higher attainments of the human mind.” Upon which he has the following note: “I am apt to suspect the Negroes, and in general all the other species of men (for there are four or five different kinds) to be naturally inferior to the whites.” Now I do not apprehend, that, in order to have different species of men, it is at all necessary to have four or five different kinds. I infer, that there is but one genus or kind of man (under the term mankind) subordinate to which there are several sorts or species of men, differing from each other upon the principle that I have assigned; and, as Hudibras says,

Besides, it is seemingly a less systematical arrangement. But he proceeds to say, “There never was a civilized nation of any other complexion than white, nor even any individual eminent either in action or speculation. No ingenious manufactures amongst them, no arts, no sciences. On the other hand, the most rude and barbarous of the whites, such as the antient Germans, or the present Tartars, have still something eminent about them, in their valour, form of government, or some other particular. Such a uniform and constant difference could not happen, in so many countries and ages, if nature had not made an original distinction betwixt these breeds of men. Not to mention our colonies, there are Negroe slaves dispersed all over Europe, of which none ever discovered any symptoms of ingenuity; though low people without education will start up among us, and distinguish themselves in every profession. In Jamaica indeed they talk of one Negroe as a man of parts and learning; but, ’tis likely he is admired for very slender accomplishments, like a parrot who speaks a few words plainly.” Thus Mr. Hume marks the difference betwixt the several species of men, by their natural capacity or incapacity of exerting in degree the rational powers, or faculties of the understanding; which is the distinction that Mr. Locke makes between man and brutes. I distinguish man from man by the moral sense or moral powers; and although a Negroe is found, in Jamaica or elsewhere, ever so sensible and acute; yet if he is incapable of moral sensations, or perceives them only as beasts do simple ideas, without the power of combination, in order to use (which I verily believe to be the case) it is a mark that distinguishes him from the man who feels and is capable of these moral sensations, who knows their application and the purposes of them, as sufficiently, as the Negroe himself is distinguished from the highest species of brutes.