De l’inégalité des rangs et de pouvoir produite par l’esclavage. — De la fusion ou du mélange de fam

CHAP. 22: > On the inequality of ranks and power produced by slavery. — On the fusion or mixture of families of diverse races.

Domestic slavery has already been abolished in a large part of the world; and, whatever the obstinacy with which it is defended in the places where it exists, enlightenment has made enough progress for us to hope that, sooner or later, it will disappear from all countries. But when slavery no longer shows itself in the hideous forms we have seen among the peoples of antiquity and among several modern peoples, its effects will still be felt for a long time; perhaps it will even present itself in new forms. The impression that servitude produces on the mores and minds of the diverse classes of the population, is so profound that it is transmitted from fathers to children, and passes down to the most remote generations. There is no people in Europe that does not still bear its marks; it is even one of the principal causes of the troubles or disorders that reign in this part of the world.When conquest has brought together peoples of diverse races on the same soil, each of them preserves and transmits to its descendants the prejudices, the morals, and even the physical characteristics that distinguish it. However numerous the revolutions that Egypt has experienced, observers there can still distinguish, by the appearance of their physiognomy alone, the Copts, the Arabs, the Jews, the Turks, and even Greeks [391]. In Hindustan, the race of the Mongols and that of the Hindus and, in Asia, that of the Tatars and that of the Chinese, are as distinct as they were on the day of the conquest [392]. In Timor and the Sunda Islands, one finds three species of men established on the same soil since time immemorial; and the differences that distinguish these peoples are as pronounced as they were before any of them had left their country of origin [393]. In Europe, all peoples belong to the same species; and yet, one finds, in each State, men of different origins, some of whom govern or aspire to govern others, for the sole reason that they belong to such-and-such a caste or have affiliated themselves with it. But, among the various mixtures of races, one finds none that have differences as pronounced as those observed in the colonies formed by the Europeans. In the islands and on some parts of the American continent, one observes, amidst a multitude of blacks, a small number of whites and swarthy people; in some other parts of the same continent, the species or varieties are more numerous still [394].

If the only differences that exist between the diverse races consisted merely in the color or in the form of their features, I would not concern myself with them here; but they consist principally in the principles according to which one judges the merit or demerit of men. These differences thus exercise a very extensive influence on morals, on laws, and on government. In any country where there exist two races of men, one composed of the descendants of the conquered peoples, and the other of the descendants of the conquerors or their affiliates, men are esteemed or despised, not by reason of their personal qualities or defects, but by reason of the race to which they belong and the place they occupy among the men of that race. If the two castes belong to the same species of men, and if, consequently, they cannot be distinguished by physical characteristics, they are distinguished by artificial signs, by denominations, by particular costumes, and especially by the rank they occupy or by the occupations to which they devote themselves. When they do not belong to the same species, physical differences become the signs that serve to distribute esteem or contempt. An Anglo-American of dissolute morals will treat in an insulting manner the most respectable person for his personal qualities, who has the misfortune of having a more or less dark complexion. A European will treat with consideration a wretch without morals and without talents, because he will have the advantage of having his name preceded by a certain denomination. What the American despises is not the color in itself; it is not the defects of the person who bears it: it is the fact of the oppression exercised by the ancestors of the one over the ancestors of the other. Likewise, what the European esteems is not such-and-such a name or such-and-such a sign considered in itself, it is the fact of counting among his ancestors an individual of the conquering race or one affiliated with that race.

One must not believe that the pride manifested by the individuals of the dominant castes is born of the conviction that they have never counted slaves among their ancestors; for this sentiment is as energetic among the colonists who are recently descended from malefactors or prostitutes as it is among the families whose distinction dates back to the most ancient times; the true cause of pride is found in the relations that conquest or domination establishes between two races.

The unity of the species and other circumstances with which I need not concern myself here have greatly weakened in Europe, and in France more than in any other country, the hostile sentiment that divides the races; but in America, where conquest has had the most fatal consequences for the enslaved men, and where all individuals bear on their physiognomy the indelible characteristics of the race to which they belong, the effects of conquest or enslavement will be much more lasting [395].

The most remarkable and most fatal of these effects are to warp the judgment of men on what deserves esteem or contempt, to debase the industrial professions, to make public offices an object of monopoly, to convert taxpayers into tributaries, to place powerful obstacles to the progress of peoples, and to bring about, sooner or later, troubles, civil wars, and finally despotism. It is more or less in the power of each individual to develop his intelligence and his industry, to correct his bad habits, and to raise his children properly; but it does not depend on any man, either to reverse the order of past events, or to modify the physical characteristics he brings at birth or that he transmits to his descendants.

By exclusively attaching contempt to one color and esteem to another, by honoring or stigmatizing individuals according to whether they are born in one line of descent or another, one condemns by that very fact the most numerous part of the population to an eternal debasement, and one places the other at a point of elevation independent of any personal quality. From this it results that there are no virtues or good qualities that can elevate the former, nor any vices that can make the latter descend; the former cannot escape their abasement by the acquisition of any moral quality; the latter cannot fall from their rank by any vice or any kind of incapacity. Such a regime has much analogy with the system of slavery; it is, in a way, only a modification of it; it produces less energetic effects, but these effects are of the same nature.

However, as it is in the nature of all men to strive ceaselessly toward their development, to honor what is truly honorable, and to aspire to place themselves at the rank to which their qualities make them fit, a dominant caste finds itself reduced to the alternative of maintaining the subjugated caste in debasement and misery, or of letting it take part in all social advantages, or of finding itself in a state of war with it the moment the latter has acquired the sentiment of its power. There is no other means of maintaining a numerous class of the population in misery and abasement than slavery, and under whatever denomination such a state is established, it produces, for all classes of men, the effects that I have set forth in the preceding chapters. Sooner or later, these effects are as fatal for the race of the dominators as for that of the oppressed; they are even more so, for the individuals of the latter being more numerous than those of the former, having less to fear from invasions, and being more closely tied to the soil, they may end up as its masters. If, on the other hand, the descendants of the subjugated race can freely develop, and if they are admitted to share all social advantages, the memories of old injuries and old spoliations can be reawakened, and the descendants or affiliates of the conquerors, having become objects of jealousy and hatred, can be stripped of their power at the same time as their possessions.

The European aristocracies have avoided these dangers by admitting into their midst individuals who came from the formerly subjugated class, or by granting them the same titles, the same denominations, the same prerogatives. When they feared they were weakening, they recruited by opportunely distributing letters of nobility, or by absorbing through alliances the great fortunes developed in the other classes of society. But the individuals of the European species established in the islands and on the continent of America do not have the same means of multiplying or increasing their power. The letters of whiteness that the kings of Spain formerly gave to black or swarthy men of America did not produce the same effects as letters of nobility in Europe. Nobility being manifested by the color of the skin and by the physical constitution, no one could either give it to one who was deprived of it, or take it from one who possessed it. In Europe, an individual of the aristocratic class who restores his fortune by means of what is called a misalliance, transmits to his children no sign that could make them fall from their rank; this fact is only a passing degradation that is easily forgotten, and that nothing recalls thereafter. But an Anglo-American could not thus ally himself with impunity to a woman who belonged to the subjugated caste; he would transmit to his children ineradicable signs of his misalliance, and would degrade them while enriching them. It seems, therefore, that the descendants of the Europeans established in some parts of America are condemned to be oppressors, until they are in their turn oppressed or expelled. This danger seems to threaten especially the inhabitants of the islands where one finds only a small number of whites amidst a multitude of blacks, the Spanish-American States, where whites form only a fifth of the population, and even the whites of Brazil, who seem not to exist in a much greater proportion.

Of all prejudices, there is none more obstinate or more apt to put men in a state of war than that which pertains to the superiority of castes; it can be weakened by the progress of enlightenment, but experience has not yet proven that it is possible to erase it completely. However, it is perhaps not impossible to weaken it to the point of rendering it harmless; but by what means can one achieve this? Is it by declaring that the copper-colored are white or that the whites are copper-colored? Is it enough to declare that whites, the swarthy, and the copper-colored are all of the same color, or that colors are abolished? One could, no doubt, make such declarations and others like them; but it is probable that they would produce no more effect in the American States than the declaration in France that no nobility existed, and that all men were equal, has produced. One would not advance much further by denying the fact of conquest or enslavement, or by declaring that this fact will have no consequence; what has been, is irrevocable; and when a fact has existed, it produces results that it is not in the power of men to prevent.

If one wishes to take the trouble to observe what produces pride and abasement, one will find that it is, on the one hand, the sentiment of strength and security, and on the other the sentiment of weakness or powerlessness. The contempt that the individuals of one race have for the individuals of the other is not due only to the thought that the ancestors of the latter were once oppressed with impunity by the ancestors of the former; it is due above all to the thought that there exist for the descendants of the one, guarantees that do not exist for the descendants of the other. What inspires in certain men contempt for others is not the sentiment of their personal qualities, it is the persuasion, well or ill-founded, that they cannot be oppressed by them. The most effective means of extinguishing the antipathy observed between the races in all countries where there has existed a class of oppressors and a class of the oppressed, is justice. One must not declare that all men are equal, for that would be a lie, and lies are a bad means of government; one must ensure, as much as possible, that all men enjoy equal protection; the same qualities or the same services must obtain the same rewards, and the same vices or the same crimes must be followed by similar punishments. If there is no way to arrive at such a result, men must remain under the empire of a brute force; that is to say, slavery must continue to exist with all the prejudices, all the dangers, and all the calamities that are inseparable from it.

The prejudice that attaches contempt to industry, and esteem to idleness, is scarcely less apt than the contempt of races for one another to perpetuate slavery. Nowhere can wealth exist without labor, and when a class of the population disdains to work, it must beg or steal. It is true that one can live for a long time on the products of an old labor; but, as there is no fortune, however well established it may be, that is not susceptible to perishing or being dissipated, it is evident that a class of the population, whose goods could never increase and would be exposed to all the chances of decrease, would sooner or later end up falling into misery. For it to continue to exist, it would be necessary for it, in the form of taxes or in any other, to absorb the wealth produced by the laboring classes, and consequently to seize the monopoly of public functions. The dominant caste would thus substitute a collective exploitation for the individual exploitation such as takes place in domestic slavery.

To erase the stigma that, in countries cultivated by slaves, has been attached to labor, there are only two means: one is to guarantee to each the products of his industry; the other, to call into the country individuals of the conquerors' class who do not have their prejudices. One complains that the natives of South America lack activity and disdain industry; there may be several reasons for this; but, if the insecurity of the products of labor is not the principal one, it is the example of the whites, supreme judges of what is debasing and what is honorable. America is far from having the population that its soil can nourish: in the southern part, and even in Mexico, there exist entire provinces that are still but deserts. If the inhabitants of these lands employed, to call European workers there, means analogous to those that the Anglo-Americans have used, there is no doubt that they would thus give a very strong impulse to the activity of the old inhabitants. It would then necessarily happen, either that the old population would become active and laborious, or else that it would remain stationary in its growth, and that the country would be populated by individuals of the European race; for everywhere, the most industrious part of the population is the one that multiplies with the most rapidity.

The emigration of European workers, into the States of Mexico or into the southern part of America, would have for the current inhabitants a still greater advantage, which would be the fusion of races. One of the greatest obstacles that M. de Humboldt saw to the establishment of a good government in the old Spanish colonies is the difficulty of determining the men of the diverse castes to consider themselves as fellow citizens [396]. This difficulty cannot be overcome as long as the individuals of one caste reject as stigmatizing any alliance with the individuals of the other castes; but by calling European workers into the country, this difficulty would be easily overcome. Men of this class would arrive without any prejudice of color or birth, and they could ally themselves, in the country, only with persons of a class corresponding to their own. This fusion of races, which would produce such great advantages for all, is indicated by nature itself, for it has been observed that they improve by cross-breeding.

When the Spaniards arrived in America, they did not bring women with them, or if they brought some, the number was extremely small. The government of Spain did not do as those of France and England; it did not send shiploads of prostitutes to the colonists. The conquerors therefore married women of the country; it is true that, after the first generation, they allied themselves only among themselves [397]. But this first alliance, far from having a fatal influence on the individuals who issued from it, was on the contrary very favorable to them. The Spanish-Americans today form a more beautiful race than that of the Spaniards. Azara, whose testimony should not be suspect, found them superior in their height, in the elegance of their forms, and even in the whiteness of their skin; he also found in them more activity, more sagacity, more enlightenment than in individuals of purely European race, born in America [398]. One can all the less doubt the mixing of races, and the effects that result from it, since, in Paraguay, the individuals of mixed race generally speak the language of their mother [399].

The same phenomena have been observed in the mixing of negroes and copper-colored people. The men who are born of the union of individuals of these two races have more intelligence, more energy, more strength, and more beautiful forms than the individuals of either species; they are even generally stronger than the individuals born of the mixture of Europeans with the Indians, but they are less intelligent [400].The mixture of the European and the Negro produces a race of men more active and more diligent in their work than the mixture of the European and the Mexican Indian [401]. Those born of whites and mulattoes form an even more beautiful race [402]. Finally, all mixed-race individuals are distinguished by a healthier and more vigorous constitution, by greater vital energy, and by a stronger inclination toward reproduction than individuals born in the same climate to parents of the same race [403].

It is not my place to explain the causes of these phenomena; it is enough for me to have observed that while conquest and slavery create prejudices and vices that divide men, the interests of all push them toward union.