The Negro: What is His Ethnological Status? 2nd Ed

In Short

Published in 1867, this theological and pseudoscientific tract sets out to determine the physical and spiritual origin of Black people using biblical genealogy and secular history. The author argues that humanity stems exclusively from Adam and Eve, while Black people were created earlier alongside animal species. Tracing Noah’s lineage through Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the text claims all three sons were white, attributing ancient Egyptian and Carthaginian civilizations to Ham's descendants. It concludes that racial mixing caused the Biblical Flood, warning readers against granting post-Civil War racial equality. Its survival highlights the historic use of religious doctrine to rationalize segregation.

The Story

The text opens with a series of theological and ethnological inquiries, setting aside contemporary political party disputes to address what it claims is the true creation order of God. The writer argues that mainstream clergy and scholars operate under two fundamental misconceptions: first, that Black people descend from Noah’s youngest son, Ham; and second, that they descend from Adam and Eve. Asserting that these claims must be tested against scripture, physical evidence, and historic record, the text insists that Adam and Eve were created as the exclusive ancestors of the white race, endowed with immortal souls and divine governance over the earth.

To prove that Ham was not the progenitor of Black people, the narrative traces the post-flood lineages of Noah’s three sons—Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Demonstrating that Japheth’s offspring populated Europe and Shem’s offspring populated Asia, the author turns to Ham’s sons, Mizraim and Canaan. The text asserts that ancient historical accounts, physical descriptions, and artistic records prove these descendants were light-skinned with straight hair. To illustrate, it cites the women of ancient Carthage using their long tresses to weave blockade-running ship ropes during a Roman siege. Furthermore, it points to Egyptian mummies as physical evidence deliberately preserved by God to show that Ham’s lineage possessed European facial features rather than African ones.

Because Noah’s lineage was genetically "perfect" and entirely white, the author reasons that Black people could not have originated from any post-flood mutation or patriarchal curse. Instead, the text concludes that Black people existed before Adam and Eve as part of the animal creation, entering Noah’s ark strictly as beasts rather than human beings. Because the Book of Peter notes that only eight "souls" were saved in the ark—Noah, his wife, his three sons, and their wives—the author deduces that Black people possess no immortal soul.

The argument then reinterprets Old Testament narrative through this racial framework. It contends that the primary sin bringing about the Great Flood was miscegenation between Adam’s descendants ("the sons of God") and pre-Adamic Black people ("the daughters of men"). The author claims that post-flood figures like Nimrod repeated this violation by gathering Black populations to erect the Tower of Babel. Similarly, the divine command to exterminate the Canaanite tribes is explained not as moral punishment, but as the eradication of lineages mixed with non-human populations.

Finally, the text connects its Biblical exegesis to American history, asserting that God consistently chooses white slaveholders—from Abraham to Thomas Jefferson and George Washington—to deliver historical blessings. Writing in the wake of the American Civil War, the author urges Southern readers to accept the loss of their enslaved property as a trial, obey existing laws, but fiercely resist any political or social moves toward racial equality.

How It Unfolds

Challenging the common consensus The text opens by rejecting the belief that Black people descend from Ham or Adam, declaring that both clergy and secular scholars have misinterpreted biblical genealogy.

Tracing the sons of Noah The author examines Shem, Japheth, and Ham, presenting historical arguments to claim that all three brothers possessed straight hair and white features.

The testimony of mummies Invoking ancient Egypt, the writer claims God inspired Mizraim to invent mummification specifically to preserve physical proof that Ham’s offspring were white.

Reassessing the Noahic curse The narrative argues that Noah’s curse upon Canaan did not alter physical features or skin color, noting that Phoenician and Carthaginian descendants remained light-skinned.

Establishing pre-Adamic creation By arguing that Black people came out of the ark but did not descend from Noah, the author asserts they were created before Adam alongside animals.

Denying the existence of a soul Referencing scripture stating only eight souls were saved in the ark, the text claims Black people entered as beasts and lack immortal spirits.

Reinterpreting the Great Flood The author reinterprets the Genesis flood as God’s destruction of the earth to punish intermarriage between Adam's descendants and non-human Black populations.

Connecting scripture to American politics The text concludes by praising slaveholding historic figures, instructing Southern readers to accept their economic losses while actively opposing post-war racial equality.

The People

Noah Described as racially pure and "perfect in his genealogy," Noah serves as the structural pivot of the author's argument. His three sons and their wives are identified as the sole human survivors of the flood, preserving Adam's original physical traits.

Ham The youngest son of Noah, whom traditional 19th-century racial theories cited as the father of Black people. The author vigorously defends Ham against this tradition, claiming his actual descendants founded ancient Egypt and Carthage as light-skinned, straight-haired civilizations.

Mizraim The second son of Ham and settler of Egypt. The text frames him as an instrument of divine foresight who developed mummification to leave behind physical bodies that disprove theories connecting his father to African ancestry.

Nimrod The grandson of Ham, described as a tyrannical ruler who gathered Black populations on the plain of Shinar. The text accuses him of repeating pre-flood sins by intermarrying with non-human populations and commissioning the Tower of Babel to escape divine judgment.

Canaan Ham's youngest son, whose descendants were cursed to be servants. The author uses Canaan's genealogy to argue that curses do not change physical traits, while attributing the eventual extermination of the Canaanite tribes to racial intermixing.

In Its Own Voice

"The intelligent will see at once, that the question of slavery, either right or wrong, is not involved in this caption for examination: nor is that question discussed."

The author opens by attempting to frame his racial theories as objective science and scriptural analysis rather than political advocacy.

"That these mummied witnesses of Ham, his dead children, speaking from the tombs of ages for their father... protesting by their long, straight hair, by their high foreheads, by their high noses, and by their thin lips, now hushed in silence forever, that the slander, that their father was the progenitor of the negro, was a slander most foul..."

The writer uses dramatic language to present Egyptian mummies as physical evidence supporting his genealogical arguments.

"The negro being in the ark, was not one of those eight souls, and consequently he has no soul to be saved--the Bible and God's inspiration being judge."

The text directly states its main theological assertion regarding the spiritual status of Black people.

What It's Really About

Underneath its theological citations and pseudo-ethnological historical claims, the text functions as an explicit defense of white supremacy and racial hierarchy in Reconstruction-era America. By attempting to strip Black people of shared Adamic ancestry, the author constructs an argument that removes them from the framework of human rights, spiritual salvation, and civic equality.

The work addresses deep post-Civil War anxieties among Southern whites regarding the political emancipation and potential social integration of newly freed Black Americans. By reinterpreting major biblical milestones—the Creation, the Flood, the Tower of Babel, and the Conquest of Canaan—as divine mandates against racial integration, the text attempts to weaponize religious doctrine to justify ongoing subjugation and resist constitutional reforms guaranteeing equal rights.

Why Read It Today

This text appeals primarily to historians, researchers, and readers studying the intellectual foundations of American racism, religious fundamentalism, and pro-slavery ideology. Rather than providing an enjoyable reading experience, it offers a stark, unvarnished look at how pseudo-scientific logic and literalist theology were combined to justify institutional oppression following the Civil War.

Reading the work requires navigating dense, repetitive arguments, archaic scriptural interpretations, and deeply offensive racial rhetoric. The prose moves between pedantic biblical breakdowns and aggressive polemics aimed at convincing 1860s readers of a pre-Adamic creation order.

What remains with the reader is a clear realization of how historical texts used selective logic to rationalize prejudice. By framing extreme racial theories as objective biblical truth, the book stands as an important historical artifact, illustrating the complex ideological arguments invented to oppose racial equality during the Reconstruction era.