An eighteenth-century traveler traced European arts and sciences to black Egyptians
Evidence
- In this respect it is interesting to recall Count Constantin de Volney’s impressions after his journey to Egypt in 1783–85: “But returning to Egypt, the lesson she teaches history contains many reflections for philosophy. What a subject for meditation, to see the present barbarism and ignorance of the Copts, descendants of the alliance between the profound genius of the Egyptians and the brilliant mind of the Greeks! Just think that this race of black men, today our slave and the object of our scorn, is the very race to which we owe our arts, sciences, and even the use of speech! Just imagine, finally, that it is in the midst of peoples who call themselves the greatest friends of liberty and humanity that one has approved the most barbarous slavery and questioned whether black men have the same kind of intelligence as Whites!” — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1735
Categorization
- SEED: Volney’s quotation could anchor an essay on how early modern European travelers themselves recognized the African origin of civilization before later scholarship suppressed it.