V. Observations on the bodily Conformation and mental Ca-
pacity of the Negroes. By Professor Blumenbach. From
Magazin für das neueste aus der Physik, Vol. IV.

During a tour which I made through Swisserland, I
saw in the picture-gallery at Pommersfeld four negro heads
by Vandyk, two of which in particular had the lines of
the face so regular that the features seemed very little dif-
ferent from the European. At that time, as I had never had
an opportunity of acquiring a proper knowledge respecting
the form of the negro head and cranium, by studying nature,
and as I remembered that Mr. Camper, in a dissertation
read in the Academy of Painting at Amsterdam, had men-
tioned that the greater part of the most eminent painters, and
specially Rubens, Vandyk and Jordaens, when they painted
Moors, copied from Europeans, whose faces had been black-
ened for that purpose, I ascribed the European look of the
[Seite 142] above negro heads to this common fault. Some months
after, however, I had an opportunity of convincing myself
that there are real negroes whose features correspond very
nearly with those of the Europeans, and that the above
heads in the gallery of Pommersfeld might be a true repre-
sentation of nature.

Going to pay a visit at Yverdun to the two brothers Trey-
torrens, one of whom, the chevalier, had been thirty-five
years in the French service, particularly at St. Domingo; and
the other, by means of the opportunities which his brother
enjoyed, had a collection of natural curiosities that contained
many rare articles, when I entered the court of their elegant
habitation, which is situated on the road to Goumoens, I saw no
person to shew me into the house, except a woman of an agreeable
figure, who was standing with her back towards me. When
she turned round to give me an answer, I was much surprised
to find that she was a female negro, whose face perfectly cor-
responded with her figure, and fully justified the fidelity of
likeness in Vandyk’s negro heads, which I had seen at Pom-
mersfeld. All the features of her face, even the nose and
lips, the latter of which were a little thick, though not so
as to be disagreeable, had they been covered with a white
skin, must have excited universal admiration. At the same
time she was not only exceedingly lively, and possessed a
sound understanding; but, as I afterwards learned, was ex-
tremely well informed and expert in the obstetric art. The
handsome pretty negress of Yverdun is celebrated far and
near as the best midwife in the Italian part of Swisserland.
I was informed by her master, the chevalier, who has in
his service also a negro man as elegantly formed as a statue,
that she was a creole from St. Domingo; that both her pa-
rents were natives of Congo, but not so black as the negroes
of Senegal.

Since that period I have had an opportunity of seeing and
conversing with many negroes, and have procured for my
collection a great many anatomical preparations from negro
[Seite 143] bodies, which, together with what I have read in different
voyages, tend more and more to convince me of the truth
of the two following proportions:

1. That between one negro and another there is as much
(if not more) difference in the colour, and particularly in the
lineaments of the face, as between many real negroes, and
other varieties of the human species.

2. That the negroes, in regard to their mental faculties
and capacity, are not inferior to the rest of the human race.

The three negro skulls, which I have now before me, af-
ford, by the very striking gradation with which the linea-
ments pass from the one to the other, a very evident proof of
the first proposition. One of them, which Mr. Michaelis was
so good as to bring me from New-York, and of which I
have given an accurate description in another place^*, is dis-
tinguished by such a projecting upper jaw-bone, that, if the
same peculiarity belonged to all negroes, one might be
tempted to suppose that they had another first parent than
Adam. On the other hand, the lineaments of the third
have so little of the exotic form, and are so different from
the first, that if I had not dissected the whole head perfectly
entire, and just as it was when cut from the body, I should
be in doubt whether I ought to consider it as having actu-
ally belonged to a real negro. The second holds a mean
rank between both, and in its whole form has a great like-
ned to the head of the Abyssinian Abbas Gregorius, a good
engraving of which by Heiss, in 1691, from a painting by
Von Sand, I have now before me, and which not only
proves in general the close affinity of the Abyssinians with
the negroes, but approaches much nearer to the ugly ne-
groes, to speak according to the European ideas of beauty,
than the well-formed negress of Yverdun, or the handsome
young negro whose head I dissected as before mentioned, or
than a thousand others whose features are little different
from those of the Europeans. What I have here said is
indeed nothing else than a confirmation of a truth long
[Seite 144] known, which has been already remarked by unprejudiced
travellers, as will appear by the following quotations. Le
Maire, in his Voyage to Cape Verd, Senegal, and Gam-
bia^*, says: ‘“Blackness excepted, there are female negroes
as well made as our ladies in Europe.”’ Leguat, in his well-
known Voyages^†, tells us, that he found at Batavia several
very pretty negresses, whose faces had the perfect European
form. Adanson, in his Account of Senegal^‡, speaking of
the female negroes there, has the following passage: ‘“The
women are almost as tall as the men, and equally well made.
Their skin is remarkably fine and soft: their eyes are black
and open; the mouth and lips small, and the features are
well proportioned. Some of them are perfect beauties. They
are exceedingly lively, and have an easy, free air, that is
highly agreeable.”’ Ulloa, in his Noticias Americanas^‖, ob-
serves, that some of the negroes have thick projecting lips,
a flat nose, eyes deeply sunk in the sockets, which in gene-
ral are called getudos, and wool instead of hair. He then
adds: ‘“Others, whose colour is equally black, have features
perfectlly like those of the whites, particularly in regard to
the nose and the eyes, and smooth but thick hair^§.”’

The testimonies and examples which serve to prove the
truth of the second proposition, respecting the mental facul-
ties, natural talents and ingenuity of the negroes, are equally
numerous and incontrovertible. Their astonishing memo-
ries, their great activity, and their acuteness in trade, parti-
cularly with gold dust, against which the most experienced
European merchant cannot be too much on his guard, are
all circumstances so well known, that it is not necessary to
enlarge on them^*. The great aptitude of the slaves for
learning every kind of nice handicraft is equally well known;
and the case is the same in regard to their musical talents,
as we have instances of negroes playing the violin in so mas-
terly a manner, that they gained so much money as enabled
them to purchase their liberty^†.

Of the poetical genius of the negroes instances are known
among both sexes. A female negro, who was a poetess, is
mentioned by Haller; and a specimen of the Latin Poetry
of Francis Williams, a negro, may be found in the History
of Jamaica. The interesting letters of Ignatius Sancho, a
negro, are well known; and the two following instances
will serve as a farther proof of the capacity and talents of our
black brethren, in regard to literature and science. The
protestant clergyman J.J. Eliza Capitein was a negro; a
man of considerable learning, and a great orator. I have in
my possession an excellent print of him engraved by Tanjé,
after P. Vandyk. Our worthy professor Hollman, when he
was at Wittenberg, conferred the degree of Doctor of Phi-
[Seite 146] losophy on a negro who had shewn himself to advantage
not only as a writer, but as a teacher, and who afterwards
came to Berlin as a counsellor of state to his Prussian ma-
jesty. I have now before me two treatises written by him^*,
one of which, in particular, displays extensive and well-di-
gested reading of the best physiological works of the time.
Of the uncommon knowledge which many negroes have had
in the practice of medicine, very favourable testimony has
been given by Boerhaave and De Haen, who were certainly
competent judges; and the sound skill and delicate expert-
ness of the Yverdun accoucheuse are, as already said, cele-
brated throughout the whole neighbourhood.

To conclude, the Academy of Sciences at Paris had among
the number of its correspondents M. Listet a negro, in the
Isle of France, who excelled in making accurate meteorolo-
[Seite 147] gical observations. On the other hand, whole provinces
of Europe might, in my opinion, be named, from which
it would be difficult to produce at present virtuoso’s,
poets, philosophers, and correspondents of a learned aca-
demy.