An enslaved man teaching himself to read refutes Agassiz’s claims of racial inferiority

Evidence

I wanted Harvard—and the world—to know that Papa Renty was a proud man who taught himself and his children to read at a time when that was a risk to his own safety, and theirs. That alone debunked Louis Agassiz’s theories, which Harvard clearly supported when the daguerreotypes were commissioned. — Tamara Lanier, From These Roots, 252

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the book’s central thesis that property law is the afterlife of slavery — Renty’s intellect directly rebuts the scientific racism used to justify his enslavement.