Globalization of the United States, 1789-1861

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Goodrich, Samuel G. A History of All Nations, from the Earliest Periods to the Present Time; or, Universal history: in which the History of Every Nation, Ancient and Modern, is Separately Given. New York and Auburn: Miller, Orton and Mulligan, 1856.

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Samuel G. Goodrich. A History of All Nations, from the Earliest Periods to the Present Time; or, Universal History: in which the History of Every Nation, Ancient and Modern, is Separately Given. New York and Auburn: Miller, Orton and Mulligan, 1856. 1:Title page.

Like many geography authors of the day, Goodrich associated an “American” race with Native Americans, while affiliating “Americans” with a “Caucasian” race.

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Classification of Human Varieties. — In attempting to form a classification of the human race according to its physical varieties, the most eminent philosophers agree in considering man as forming a single species of the genus, and differ only as to the number of varieties into which it is to be sub-divided. The celebrated Cuvier includes all these varieties under three primary divisions, which he terms, 1. The Fair, or Caucasian variety. 2. The Yellow, or Mongolian. 3. The Black, or Ethiopian. Blumenbach extends these primary divisions to five, of which we shall here give a brief survey.

I. The Caucasian Variety, characterized by a white skin; red cheeks; copious, soft, flowing hair, generally curled or waving; ample beard; small, oval, and straight face, with features distinct; expanded forehead; large and elevated cranium; narrow nose; and small mouth. This race has given birth to the most civilized nations of ancient and modern times, and has exhibited the moral and intellectual powers of human nature, in their highest degree of perfection. This variety derives its name from the group of mountains between the Caspian and the Black Sea, because tradition seems to point to this part of the world as the place of its origin. Thence its different branches have issued at different periods, in different directions; and here, even at the present day, we find its peculiar physical characteristics in the highest perfection, among the Georgians and Circassians, who are considered the handsomest people in the world[.]

It embraces several branches, distinguished by analogies of language, viz:

1. The Syrian branch, comprising the

Chaldeans,
Assyrians,
Phoenicians,
Jews,
Arabs,
Egyptians, (Copts,)
Abyssinians, (Arab colonies,) &c.

From this branch, which directed its course southwards, have sprung the religions which have proved the most durable and the most widely extended in the west.

2. The Indo-Pelasgic branch, comprising

Hindoos,
Persians,
Greeks,
Romans,
Celtic Nations, (Ancient Gauls, Celtiberians, Britons, &c., Welsh, Irish, Scotch Highlanders, &c.,)
Teutonic Nations, (Germans, Danes, Swedes, Norwegians, Dutch, English, &c.,)
Sclavonic Nations, (Russians, Poles, Servians, Croatians, Bohemians, Slowacs, Wends, &c.,)
Romanic Nations, (French, Spaniards, Portuguese, Italians, Belgians, Walachians, &c.)

The nations which compose this branch have carried philosophy, science, and the arts to the highest perfection, and for more than three thousand years have been the depositaries and guardians of knowledge.

3. The Schythian or Tartarian branch, comprising

Scythians,
Parthians,
Turkish Nations, (Usbecks, Turkmans, Kirghises, Osmanlees or Ottoman Turks, &c.,)
Uralian Nations, (Finlanders, Hungarians or Magyars, Esthonians, Sames or Laplanders, &c.)

Accustomed to a roving and predatory life in the vast steppes of Asia, these wandering tribes seem only destined to devastate the inheritance, and subvert the civil institutions, of their more polished brethren.

II. The Mongolian Variety has these characteristics: — The skin, instead of being white or fair, is olive yellow; the hair thin, coarse, and straight; little or no beard; broad, flattened face, with the features running together; small and low forehead; square-shaped cranium; wide and small nose; very oblique eyes; and thick lips. Stature inferior to the Caucasian. In this race the moral and intellectual energies have been developed in an inferior degree.

This variety, which stretches eastwardly from the Scythian branch of the Caucasian race to the shores of the Pacific Ocean, and which has mostly retained the wandering life, appears to have had its origin in the Altai Mountains, whence it has thrice carried the terror of its name, under Attila, Gengis, and Tamerlane, over half the Old World. The Chinese, belonging to this variety, are by some thought to have been the most early civilized of all the nations of the world[.]

It comprises the

Chinese, or mass of the population of China[,]
Coreans,
Japanese,
Tungoorts, (Tungooses Proper in Siberia and Mantchoos, the ruling people of China,)
Mongols, (Mongols Proper, Kalmucks, &c.,)
Birmese or Myammas,
Annamites, (Cochinchinese, Tonquinese,)
Siamese,
Samoyedes, and numerous other Siberian hordes,
Esquimaux, (classed by some in the American variety,) &c.

III. The American Variety has the skin dark, and more or less red; the hair is black, straight, and strong, with the beard small; face and skull very similar to the Mongolian, but the former not so flattened; eyes sunk; forehead low; the nose and other features being somewhat projecting.

The moral and intellectual qualities of this race approach those of the Mongolian; like that it has remained stationary, but it has stopped at a point much below the Asiatic variety. The ancient and now extinct empires of Mexico and Peru may be considered analogous to those of China and India, exhibiting the highest point of civilization to which the two races have reached; but arts, sciences, and all those intellectual endowments which, to a certain extent, belong to the Asiatics, appear to have made little or no progress among the Americans.

IV. In The Ethiopian Variety, the skin is black, hair short, black, and woolly; skull compressed on the sides, and elongated towards the front; forehead low, narrow, and slanting; cheek bones very prominent; jaws projecting, so as to render the upper front teeth oblique; eyes prominent; nose broad and flat; lips, especially the upper one, very thick. Different branches of this race spread over the whole of the African continent, excepting those parts bordering on the north and east of the Great Desert, which are occupied by Caucasian Syrians, and in which all traces of the Negro formation disappear.

The extension given to this variety seems to be rather arbitrary, and a more correct division of the African races will probably be the result of a better acquaintance with that continent. There is, indeed, little in common between the Negro and the Berber, and the Hottentot and the Cadre. The Ethiopian variety comprises the following leading branches, viz:

1. The Hottentots, (Coronas, Namaquas, Bushmen, and other tribes within the Cape Colony and the basin of the river Orange.)
2. The Caffres, (Coosas, Tambookis, Betshuanas, &c., extending from Port Natal to an uncertain distance north.)
3. The Negroes, occupying the whole continent from about 20° N. to the southern tropic, with the exception of some regions on the eastern coast, and including numerous families of nations.
4. The Gallas, (comprising numerous wandering tribes, who have conquered a great part of Abyssinia and the neighboring countries.)
5. The Barabras or Berbers, (including the native tribes of Northern Africa; Berbers Proper, Tuaricks, Tibboos, Shelluhs, &c., of the Atlas region; and the Nubians, Kenoos, Shangalls, Shillooks, Darfurians, Somaulis, &c., to the east.)

The Ethiopian variety has ever remained in a rude and comparatively barbarous state; their cities are but collections of huts; their laws, the despotic whim of the reigning chief. Incessantly occupied in war and the chase, they do not seek to perpetuate their ideas; they have no written language, the Arabic being the only character used in Africa; and although abundantly supplied with the necessaries of life, they have retained their condition unchanged, after centuries of intercourse with enlightened nations. Let us hope that a better destiny awaits them.

V. The Malay Race varies in the color of the skin from a light tawny to a deep brown, approaching to black; hair black, more or less curled, and abundant; head rather narrow; bones of the face large and prominent; nose full and broad towards the lips. Such is the account given by many writers of this variety, which is spread all over Oceania, and is found in Malacca, in Asia, and on Madagascar, in Africa; but it certainly includes races of very different physical and moral qualities.

We may divide it into the Malayan race and the Melanesian or Papuan race. The former is of a lighter complexion, longer hair, and somewhat oval countenance. Some of the nations of this race have long possessed alphabets, and made considerable advances in civilization, while others are in a low state. The latter have the black complexion and woolly hair of the Negroes, and are in the most degraded social condition, living by fishing or on the spontaneous productions of the earth, without clothing, without huts, and even without arms, except of the rudest construction. They form the only inhabitants of the great islands of Australia, and are found in the interior of the other principal islands of Oceania, in which the Malayan races are generally the ruling people.

Malayan branch, includes

Javanese,
Malays Proper, (in Sumatra, Borneo, Malacca the Moluccas, &c.,)
Battaks,
Achinese, Sumatra,
Bugis,
Macassars,
Alfourous, Celebes,
Dayaks or Haraforas, (Borneo,)
Tagals,
Bissayos,
Sooloos,
Mindanaos, Philippines,
Carolinians,
New Zealanders,
Feejeeans,
Sandwich Islanders,
Society Islanders,
Friendly Islanders, &c.

Papuan branch, includes

New Hollanders,
Inhabitants of New Guinea, Papua, and many others, in various islands, mixed with the Malays.

The origin of the different races of men has been a subject of much inquiry. The Bible traces them all to one source, and this view is confirmed by scientific investigation. If we resort to the supposition that the diversities of color, form, and character, which we discover in mankind, proceed from so many different creations, then we shall be driven to the conclusion, that there were, at least, many thousands of these. In Hindostan, for instance, where the people for many centuries have been regarded as one race, there are groups of every shade of complexion, and every variety of stature, form, and character, both mental and physical. Now, had each of these groups original parents — an Adam and Eve, — created by the direct act of God? Such a supposition finds no support in history; on the contrary, all history, both written and traditional, is against it.

On the other hand, the variety of races in the human family may be accounted for from facts within our own observation. True whites have been born among negroes and Arabs, remote from all contact with white population. The style of living, the food, the climate, are well known to produce complete transformations in the whole physical and mental aspect of families and tribes. We come to the conclusion, then, that nature herself has made provision for the varieties of the human race, thus adapting them to every zone and every clime, and displaying in the Author of nature that wisdom which “sees the end from the beginning.”