Renowned Author Offers Views On Book Trying To Prove African Americans To Be Inferior And A Pamphlet Written By A Slave

RICHARD BARKSDALE HARWELL (1915-1988) was a Georgian librarian and a renowned bibliographer, best known for Georgiana: A Selection of a Dozen Collectible Georgia Books.

VAN ALLEN BRADLEY was the Literary Editor of the Chicago Daily News.

In this one-page, TLS, Harwell offers his views on the book “The Progress and Intelligence of Americans,” by Marvin T. Wheat.

“This book is ne of a fairly large bibliogeny that is especially interesting to me – the pseudo-sociology which tried during the years just before the Civil War and again, even harder, in the years immediately after the war to prove the Negro an inferior race. I think much of this move can be traced back to Gobineau who also had a direct influence on the Nazis’ theories of racial superiority. The most interesting single piece to me is a pamphlet published in Atlanta during the war, Slavery and Abolitionism by a Georgia Slave. It was actually written in slavery by a Negro named Harrison Berry who lived at Covington, Georgia, and asserts the desirability of slavery for himself and his race. The fact that he himself wrote it is so well established that it is unquestionable.

Light toning, folds and a couple of stray pen marks. Quite readable with some strong comments from a renowned scholar.

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