James Poskett > Quotes

“Race on the World Stage Phrenology was both a mental science and a racial science. In New York City, Combe held skulls aloft, inviting his audience to “compare the heads of the Negroes with those of the North American Indians.” It was phrenology, Combe told his audience, that best explained the history of the different “races of man.” Holding up a Native American skull, Combe pointed out that “the Indian has more Destructiveness, less Cautiousness, less Benevolence.” This explained why Native Americans could not be enslaved. According to Combe, “he has retained his freedom by being the proud, indomitable, and destructive Savage which such a combination indicates.” In contrast, the “Negro” was “gentler in nature” and so more easily subdued. Combe concluded by comparing the Native American and African skulls, suggesting that “had the Negroes possessed a similar organization, to make useful slaves of them would have been impossible.”67 Phrenology, therefore, both”
― James Poskett, Materials of the Mind: Phrenology, Race, and the Global History of Science, 1815-1920