...'whatever be their degree of talent, it is no measure of their rights'. Stanhope Smith was inclined to ascribe the apparent dullness of the negro principally...state of his existence first in his original country . . . and afterwards in those regions to which he is transported to finish his days in slavery, and...

...condition and the lack of "genius" among the darker peoples of the country. Smith noted: I am inclined ... to ascribe the apparent dullness of the negro principally...and toil. Genius, in order to its cultivation, and the advantageous display of its powers, requires freedom: it requires reward, the reward at least of...

...the mental faculties of the wretched savages of Africa, I am not prepared either to deny or affirm. 1 am inclined, however, to ascribe the apparent dullness...and toil. Genius, in order to its cultivation, and the advantageous display of its powers, requires freedom: it requires reward, the reward at least of...

...seemed clear to Stanhope Smith that the Negro's "dullness" was only "apparent" and best attributed "principally to the wretched state of his existence...he is transported to finish his days in slavery and toil."41 By the same token, that a Wheatley or Sancho had appeared at all proved to him that slavery...

...caused primarily by environment. Smith (1810:191-194), for example, remarked that: I am inclined. . .to ascribe the apparent dullness of the negro principally...savage, and subjected to an atrocious despotism; and 169 afterwards in those regions in which he is transported to finish his days in slavery, and toil....

...inclined ... to ascribe the apparent dullness of the negro," Smith wrote in the 1810 version of his essay, "principally to the wretched state of his existence...is transported to finish his days in slavery, and toil."110 But by the midnineteenth century this account was precisely inverted. The "debasement" of...