An Enquiry Concerning the Intellectual and Moral Faculties, and Literature of Negroes: followed with an account of the life and works of fifteen negroes & mulattoes, distinguished in science, literature and the arts
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- David Baillie Warden
- author
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- An Enquiry Concerning the Intellectual and Moral Faculties, and Literature of Negroes: followed with an account of the life and works of fifteen negroes & mulattoes, distinguished in science, literature and the arts translation has paratext
Notes
Warden's translation has a preface and dedication, "To all the men who have had the courage to please the cause of the unhappy blacks and mulattoes, whether by the the publication of their works, or by discussions in national assemblies etc." The list includes:
Frenchmen: Adanson, Bernardin St Pierre, Boissy d’Anglas, Brissot, Carra, Clavière, Condorcet, Dessessarts, D’Estaing, Ducis, Dupont de Nemours, La Fayette, Fauchet, Ferrand de Baudieres, Garat, Garran [de Coulon], Genty, Gramagnac, St John Crevecoeur, Lanthenas, Mirabeau, Montesquieu, Milscent, Necker, Pétion, La Rochefoucault, Roederer, Sieyès, Sonthonax, Tracy, Turgot.
Englishmen: Mrs. Barbauld, Mrs Behn, T. Clarkson, [Thomas] Cooper, Charles Crawford, [Erasmus] Darwin, [George] Dyer, James Foster, Charles Fox, George Fox, Thomas Gisburne, James Grainger, Grandville Sharpe, Lord Holland, Horne Took[e], Francis Hutchinson, [James] Mackintosh, Miss Hannah More, Mungo Park, John Newton, Mrs Opie, Pitt, Pratt, Price, Priestley, James Ramsay, [William] Roscoe, Sheridan, Southey, [Charles] Stanhope, Sterne, Stone, Thelwall, Thompson, John Wesley, Wilberforce, Miss Helen Maria Williams, Miss Yearsley.
Americans: Joel Barlow, Franklin, Imlay, Livingston, Madison, Rush, John Vaughen (sic), D.B. Warden.
Negroes & Mulattoes: Cugoano, Othello, Phillis Wheatley, Raymond, Ignatius Sancho, Gustavus Vasa.
Italians: Cardinal Cibo, abbé Pierre, Tamburini.
Also Germans, Danes, Swedes, Hollanders and one Spaniard.
In his Preface, Warden cited from his former professor from Glasgow, John Millar, “Negro slavery is contrary to the sentiments of humanity and the principles of justice”, recalling his teaching that any bargain entered into at the cost of liberty is unequal and "ought to be broken". Europeans were so "ardent" to amass riches, he noted, that they, "affected to believe, that the black colour of the negro was sufficient excuse… to treat him worse than a brute". He ends with a quotation from Curran's defence at the trial of the United Irishman, Archibald Hamilton Rowan.
He apologizes to his readers for having to translate, at haste, from the author's manuscript.