Proslavers argued Africans lacked the reflective capacity for citizenship

Evidence

It was absurd, Gouly insisted, to grant freedom and citizenship to people whose souls were accessible “only through the organ of hearing,” animated only by the “loud sounds of a drum or a voice expressed with force,” whose eyes had no “vivacity,” and whose very “figure” presented “the image of stupidity.” “He acts and does not reflect; he seldom speaks and often sings; never does a profound sentiment of pain or pleasure cause tears to stream from his eyes.” “He suffers and never complains,” Gouly continued. — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 668

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: Gouly’s auditory-based racism — souls accessible only through hearing and drums — pairs with the cross-cultural dress/moral-panic material and the framing of racist colonial ideology as pseudo-science.