ABSTRACT
At the start of the nineteenth century, Britain saw itself in possession of a vast territorial empire. Although the American colonies had been lost, the rest of the empire continued to grow. The chapter represents three of the central concerns of the period: slavery, race and the relationship between Britain and India. While comparative anatomists explained the supposed moral degeneracy of non-white races by skull shape, Evangelicals blamed the absence of true faith. The distinction of colour between white and black races is not more striking, than the pre-eminence of the former in moral feelings and in mental endowments. The inferiority of the dark to the white races is more general and strongly marked in the powers of knowledge and reflection, using that expression in its most comprehensive sense, than in moral feelings and dispositions. In all the points which have been just considered, the white races present a complete contrast to the dark-coloured inhabitants of the globe.
