A Hideous Monster of the Mind: American Race Theory in the Early Republic By Bruce Dain
Publisher: Harvard University Press 2003 | 334 Pages | ISBN: 0674009460 | PDF | 1 MB
Publisher: Harvard University Press 2003 | 334 Pages | ISBN: 0674009460 | PDF | 1 MB
Are racial differences the result of disparities in environment and social position or innate biological variations? This question loomed large in early America, and this fascinating work of intellectual history revisits the race debate in the years between the Revolution and Civil War. History professor Dain explores shifting conceptions of race in the writings of public intellectuals from Jefferson to Frederick Douglass, including those of neglected African-American writers like Phyllis Wheatley and James McCune Smith. The fundamental issue for all sides of the debate, Dain argues, was "whether slaves and ex-slaves were capable of citizenship in a republic."