Characteristics and Capabilities of the Negro Race. [pp. 401-410]

Characteristics and Capabilities of the Negro Race. LDECEMBER
tribes; and since the muscles and nerves
accompany the bones, and there is a certain organic correspondence between
them, Dr. Knox, (Races of Men, London,
1850,) asserts that every muscle and
nerve of the body is different in the two
races. The abdominal and sexual organs are largely developed in the black
race, and the negro temperament may be
described as the venous-lmyphatic. The
nervous system of negroes is not so impressible as that of whites. They feel
less pain and sleep more soundly in
every disease. Their physical strength
and power of endurance aire moderateinferior to the same qualities in the white
or red man. It is maintained by I)r.
Pritchard that the African negro exceeds
all other men in the firmness and density
of his frame.
The capacity of the thorax, the size of
the lungs, and the power of respiration,
are all considerably less than in the white
man. The negro requires less oxygen,
and exhales less carbonic acid than the
higher races. He can sleep with his head
closely wrapped in a blanket even in hot
weather, and he loves to lie with his skull
near enough to the fire to addle the
brains of a white man. He seems to delight in the sun. I have often seen them
eating their dinners on the Louisiana
plantations, sitting bare-headed in the
blaze of noon, when large rain-sheds, or
fine umbrageous trees were close at hand'
This capability of enduring great heat
qualifies him for labor amid the.dense
foliage of the cotton-pla,nt and sugar-cane
in a hot latitude, where such work would
infallibly destroy the white man.
On the other hand, the negro is ex ceedingly sensitive to'cold, and succumbs
very soon to its chilling power. There
is no greater cruelty, physiologically
speaking, than to entice the black man
away from a Southern latitude to the
bleak and inhospitable shores of Canada.
The Northern atmosphere, instead of
bracing the negro and exciting to greater
intellectua~land physical vigor, chills, en feebles, depresses, and; finally destroys.
The vis vitcef, or vital power, is inferio)r to
that of other races, so that, there is less
re-action against morbific impressions.Under the depressing influences of barbarism in their n ative contine nt of'Africa, they are feeble, indolent and
phlegmatic; s eldom live beyond the age
of sixty, and are gray, wrinkled and dec"epid at forty-five; whilst under the salutary supervision of the w hi tes in the
Southern Stat es of Amer ica, they are the
healthiest and long est-lived race in the
world.
, The hair'of the negro is s hort and
crisp, resembling wool, but micro scopically differen t from that substance. The
beard, li ke that of the North American
Indians and some Northern Asiatic nations, is scanty. It is a fact tht none
but the bearded races have as yet taken
any part in the civilization of th e world.
The black skin of the negro exhales, especial ly wh en heated, a very of fensive
perspiration. Negroes seldom r have bad
breath, but excrete much of the fetid and
carbonaceous matter of the body by and
through the skin, which is onsequently
very oily. The black skin by no mean s
constitutes a man a negro. Albinoes,
offspring of negro parents, are perfectly
white, and negroes have been known to
turn white, the black figment ceasing to
be deposited in the cuticle, butthey re main genuine negroes. The New Ycrk
Tribune rejoiced lately in a very silly
manner over one of these curious muta tions of colour, which occurred in Geor gia. The black skin is a very small part
of that tout ensemble of physical and
mental inferiority which necessitates the
subordination of the negro to the white
man.
The negro suffers much leas than the
white man from acute febrile diseases,
and is remarkably exempt from, yellow
fever, that scourge of the tropics. Dr.
Rush' said he was almost inclined to
think that negroes were black angels,
providentially prepared as nurses for the
white people during the great Philadel phia epidemic. But during and since
the severe visitation of 1853, this abso lute exemption appears to have ceased,
although the disease with negroes is al most always in a modified and very mild
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