Who's Black and why? : a hidden chapter from the eighteenth-century invention of race / edited by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and Andrew S. Curran.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., editor.

Curran, Andrew S., editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Académie royale des sciences (France).

Racism in anthropology--Europe--History--18th century.

Racism in anthropology.

Scientific racism--Europe--History--18th century.

Scientific racism.

Black race--Color--Europe--History--18th century.

Black race.

Black race--Color--Europe--Public opinion--History--18th century.

Europeans--Attitudes--History--18th century.

Europeans.

Racism--France--Bordeaux (Nouvelle-Aquitaine).

Racism.

Racism against Black people--Europe--History--18th century.

Racism against Black people.

Black race--Color--History--18th century.

Black race--Color--Public opinion--History--18th century.

Black race--Color.

Europeans--Attitudes.

Europe.

France--Bordeaux (Nouvelle-Aquitaine).

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xvi, 303 pages : illustrations, map ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Massachusetts : The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2022.

Summary:

"In 1739 Bordeaux's Royal Academy of Sciences held an essay contest seeking answers to a pressing question: What was the cause of Africans' black skin? Published here for the first time and translated into English, these early documents of scientific racism lay bare the Enlightenment origins of the phantom of racial hierarchy"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: pt. I Introduction: The 1741 Contest on the "Degeneration" of Black Skin and Hair

1. Blackness through the Power of God

2. Blackness through the Soul of the Father

3. Blackness through the Maternal Imagination

4. Blackness as a Moral Defect

5. Blackness as a Result of the Torrid Zone

6. Blackness as a Result of Divine Providence

7. Blackness as a Result of Heat and Humidity

8. Blackness as a Reversible Accident

9. Blackness as a Result of Hot Air and Darkened Blood

10. Blackness as a Result of a Darkened Humor

11. Blackness as a Result of Blood Flow

12. Blackness as an Extension of Optical Theory

13. Blackness as a Result of an Original Sickness

14. Blackness Degenerated

15. Blackness Classified

16. Blackness Dissected

pt. II Introduction: The 1772 Contest on "Preserving" Negroes

1. A Slave Ship Surgeon on the Crossing

2. A Parisian Humanitarian on the Slave Trade

3. Louis Alphonse, Bordeaux Apothecary, on the Crossing.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780674244269

0674244265

OCLC:

1269098593

Publisher Number:

40031006363