Harper's Introductory Geography

Is an 1896 school geography textbookpublished by the American book Company in New York, Cincinnati, and Chicago. I purchased a copy at my local antiques store yesterday, if for no other reason than to gain some insights into how people in the late 1800s thought of foreign peoples and cultures, as well as themselves. Here's a sampling of quotations (with italics added for emphasis):

On the Races of Men:
The inhabitants of the Earth differ from each other in their general appearance . . . and for this reason they have been divided into classes. . . These classes are called the "Five Races of Men:"

The White, or Caucasian, race is the most numerous of all. The white people of America and Europe, and the Persians, Arabians, Jews, and Hindoos in Asia, beling to it. It is known chiefly by a fair skin and regular features.

The Yellow, or Mongolian, race ranks next to the Caucasian race in numbers. The people of this race have a yellowish skin, straight black hair, broad, flat faces, and the almond-shaped eyes. The Turks, the Tartars, the Japanese, and the Chinese belong to this race.

The Black, or Negro, race has a very dark skin, thick lips flat noses, and woolly hair, and is found chiefly in Africa.

The Brown, or Malay, race is found in the Malay peninsula, in the southern part of Asia, in the neighboring islands, and in the groups of islands in the Pacific Ocean. The Malays have brown skins, flat faces, large mouths, and coarse black hair.

The Red, or Indian, race consists of the descendants of those who inhabited North and South America when those continents were setlled by white men. They have reddish skins, straight and coarse black hair, and high cheek bones.

On the inhabitants of North America:
. . . To the south, on the Western plains, there are many tribes of native Indians. The Indians were formerly an uncivilized people, spending their time in hunting and fishing, or in fighting among themselves; but many of them are now partially civilized, and have, in a measure, adopted the customs and manners of the white people. We shall learn that some of the tribes even have their own schools and churches, and have entirely abandoned the savage habits of their ancestors.

The greater part of the continent is now occupied by white people, whose ancestors came from Europe. They are not only the most numerous, but they are the ruling race.

In Mexico and Central America are creoles, who are the descendants of the Spanish conquerors of that country. They are better educated than the rest of the population, and are very proud and haughty. Then come the mestizos, or mixed race - the descendants of Spaniards and native Indians. These are the soldiers, merchants, and mechanics, and form the middle class. The Indians, who form a third class, live in villages and till the ground, but are for the most part ignorant and degraded.

On the British:
The "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland" is one of the most important countries in the world. The British are a very remarkable people. They have possessions in every part of the world, and are rulers over a great many millions of people. The people of Britain have not only been brave and bold in enlarging their dominions, but have been wonderfully ingenious in inventing machinery and manufacturing a great variety of goods.

On Africa:
There is not much to be told about Africa as about the other continents; for, except in the northern part and in the settlements bordering upon the coasts or the great rivers, it is inhabited only by uncivilized negroes.


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I anticipated a hint of ethnocentrism out of this book, but the blatant, matter-of-fact racism and ethnocentrism was pretty unexpected. It makes me both happy and sad to see how far, or little, we have come in the past 110 years.