Abolitionists confined Africans to a more primitive stage of human development.

Evidence

Liberal abolitionists like Mill and Anglican missionaries more generally may have resisted the base bestialization of “the Negro.” But they presumed Africans largely to represent a less civilized stage of humanity. — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 1397

Categorization

• XREF: Feeds the ‘civilizing mission’ critique — links to James Mill’s stadial theory of history and colonial paternalism.