Agassiz described Black hotel servants to his mother in dehumanizing animalistic terms

Evidence

There was a section of the article that quoted a letter Agassiz wrote to his mother after his first encounter with a Black man. “All the domestics in my hotel were men of color…. Nonetheless, it is impossible for me to repress the feeling that they are not of the same blood as us. In seeing their black faces with their thick lips and grimacing teeth, the wool on their head, their bent knees, their elongated hands, their large, curved nails, and especially the livid color of the palm of their hands, I could not take my eyes off their face in order to tell them to stay far away. And when they advanced that hideous hand towards my plate in order to serve me, I wished I were able to depart in order to eat a piece of bread elsewhere, rather than dine with such service. What unhappiness for the white race—to have tied their existence so closely with that of Negroes! God preserve us from such contact!” — Tamara Lanier, From These Roots, 160

Categorization

• SHARE: The verbatim letter, ending with ironic ‘God preserve us from such contact,’ is a strikingly quotable primary document about scientific racism. Not broad enough for general circulation but worth sending to an American-racial-history friend.