Abolitionists attacked polygenesis partly for contradicting the Bible

Evidence

The cutting up of the Bible, “root and branch,” in Gobineau’s Types of Mankind did not sit well with the most famous White male abolitionist and assimilationist either. William Lloyd Garrison reviewed the segregationist book on October 13, 1854, in his first bout, too, with polygenesis. Garrison took aim, in particular, at Josiah C. Nott, who had said that he “looked in vain, during twenty years for a solitary exception” to Jefferson’s verdict of never finding “a black had uttered a thought above the level of plain narrative.” This is “something extraordinary,” said Garrison sardonically, “that Jefferson should beget so many stupid children.” — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 533

Categorization

• CANDY: Garrison’s ‘Jefferson should beget so many stupid children’ is a quotable, wry jab worth sharing.