I don't know if any of you guys have ever seen this, but it came up in History 537 last week and I thought this might be an appropriate place to pass it on. It's known as the "Moss broadside" and was discovered in the commonplace book of Dr. Benjamin Rush of Philadelphia, the most prominent medical doctor of the Revolutionary period, and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Hopefully you can read it. If not I think I have the hard copy we looked at last week.
Just in case you want some extra reading (and who doesn't?), you can find an article on the broadside from a Yale historian here at common-place.net.
1 comment:
Yes, this is interesting. There are actually several accounts like this. There is, for example, an account of an enslaved African, Ibrahim abd al-Rahman, who, by virtue of his regal carriage, dignity, and intellectual skills (he spoke some five or six languages) challenged the presumptions of racial inferiority that provided much of the justification for slavery in the first place. His white sponsors felt compelled to explain away his dark skin, arguing, in part:
Prince is a Moor. Of this, however, his present appearance suggests a doubt. The objection is that he is too dark for a Moor and his hair is short and curly. It is true such is his present appearance; but it was materially different on his arrival in this country. His hair was at that time soft and very long, to a degree that precludes the possibility of his being a negro. His complexion, too, has undergone a change. Although modern physiology does not allow color to be a necessary effect of climate, still one fact is certain that a constant exposure to a vertical sun for many years, together with the privations incident to the lower order of community, and an inattention to cleanliness, will produce a very material change in the complexion. It is true, his lips are thicker that are usually, those of the Moor; but the animal frame is not that of the negro; his eyes, and in fact, his entire physiognomy is unlike that of any negro we have ever seen. And if the facial angle be an infallible criterion,the point is established, his being equal and perhaps greater, than most of the whites.
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