Racial Evolution 101

It has today been demonstrated that there is no charactaristic shared by any group of individuals which is diagnostic of that group.Further, Darwin, although enlightened for that time - he was an opponent of both slavery and vivisection, and opposed rhe social darwinism that others read into his theories for example - would by today's standard be considered a reactionary. Things pass and things change.In any case, the opinions of Darwin are irrelevant. What is important is his theory.

In his writings Darwin consistently opposed slavery. Here are some selections. One quote will give the flavour of the whole:

quote:

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Fitz-Roy's temper was a most unfortunate one. ...We had several quarrels; for when out of temper he was utterly unreasonable. For instance, early in the voyage at Bahia in Brazil he defended and praised slavery, which I abominated, and told me that he had just visited a great slave-owner, who had called up many of his slaves and asked them whether they were happy, and whether they wished to be free, and all answered "No." I then asked him, perhaps with a sneer, whether he thought that the answers of slaves in the presence of their master was worth anything. This made him excessively angry, and he said that as I doubted his word, we could not live any longer together. I thought that I should have been compelled to leave the ship; but as soon as the news spread, which it did quickly, as the captain sent for the first lieutenant to assuage his anger by abusing me, I was deeply gratified by receiving an invitation from all the gun-room officers to mess with them. But after a few hours Fitz-Roy showed his usual magnanimity by sending an officer to me with an apology and a request that I would continue to live with him." -- Charles Darwin, Autobiography of Charles Darwin 1809-1882 (restored edition)(1958), Nora Barlow editor, pp. 73- 74

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Fitz-Roy was the Captain of the Beagle. Darwin nearly got himself thrown off the ship because of his opposition to slavery.Yes, he almost certainly believed in a hierarchy of human "races" with the white population on the top. That was the general belief of the day: held by virtually all scientists and philosophers