Francis Williams: An Eighteenth-Century Tertium Quid

But the discussions mostly remained serious, and as the slave population grew in the colonies during the eighteenth century, arguments to determine whether black people "were things or humans were no mere abstractions debated in the ratified atmosphere of the courts." Many of the "more grotesque" views came "from the pens of the slavery lobby," and during the period, "slavery became synonymous with blackness."(15)

Stimulated by the appearance of black people in English households and schools, men like David Hume began to take note of the experiments of men like Lord Montagu. The experiments on these "guinea-pigs in the age of Enlightenment," as Janheinz Jahn puts it, brought with them notoriety. Francis Williams' learned accomplishments, which certainly sprang from some sort of higher training in Latin and mathematics, but not from the completion of the B.A. degree from Cambridge, for which there ii no proof, drew Hume's fire.(16)

In a footnote to his essay, "Of National Character" (1748), he stated that "I am apt to suspect the Negroes to be naturally inferior to the Whites. There scarcely ever was a civilized nation of that complexion, nor even any individual, eminent either in action or speculation. No ingenious manufactures amongst them, no arts, no sciences. On the other hand, the most rude and barbarous of the Whites, such as the ancient Germans, the present Tartars, have still something eminent about them, in their valour, form of government, or some other particular. Such a uniform and constant difference could not happen, in so many countries and ages, if nature had not made an original distinction between these breeds of men. Not to mention our colonies, there are Negro slaves dispersed all over Europe, of whom none ever discovered the symptoms of ingenuity; though low people, without education, will start up amongst us, and distinguish themselves in every profession. In Jamaica, indeed, they talk of one Negro as a man of parts and learning; but it is likely he is admired for slender accomplishments, like a parrot who speaks a few words plainly."(17)

About twenty years later, the theories of Hume on this topic were attacked in an essay "Strictures on Mr. Hume's Character of the Negroes," published in Gentleman's Magazine in May 1771. The author maintained that "Blacks, if properly educated are capable of the same improvements as Whites. About forty years ago, Mr. Williams, an African of fortune, who dressed like other gentlemen in a tye wig, sword, etc. and who was honoured with the friendship of Mr Chelselden, and other men of science was admitted to the meetings of the Royal Society and, being proposed as a member, was rejected solely for a reason unworthy of that learned body, viz. on account of his complection [sic]. The vulgar; indeed, used sometimes to jeer and insult him in the streets; but such philosophers as Mr Hume, and those of Crane-Court, might have known, that souls are of no color, and that no one can tell, on viewing a casket, what jewel it contains." Williams' friend and probable sponsor, Mr. Chelselden, was none other than one of Britain's finest surgeons, William Chelselden.(18)