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Emerson is often known as one of the most liberal democratic thinkers of his time who believed that through the democratic process, slavery should be abolished. While being an avid abolitionist who was known for his criticism of the legality of slavery, Emerson struggled with the implications of race. His usual liberal leanings did not clearly translate when it came to believing that all races had equal capability or function, which was a common conception for the period in which he lived. Many critics believe that it was his views on race are what inhibited him from becoming earlier in his life and also inhibited him being more active in the anti-slavery movement. Much of his early life, he was silent on the topic of race and slavery. It was not until well into his 30s that Emerson began to publish writings on race and slavery, and it was not until his late 40s and 50s that he became known as an anti-slavery activist.

During his early life, Emerson seems to develop a hierarchy of races based on faculty to reason or rather, whether African slaves were distinguishably equal to white men based on their ability to reason. In a journal entry written in 1822, Emerson writes about a personal observation:

“It can hardly be true that the difference lies in the attribute of reason. I saw ten, twenty, a hundred large lipped, lowbrowed black men in the streets who, except in the mere matter of language, did not exceed the sagacity of the elephant. Now is it true that these were created superior to this wise animal, and designed to control it? And in comparison with the highest orders of men, the Africans will stand so low as to make the difference which subsists between themselves & the sagacious beasts inconsiderable’

As with many supporters of slavery, during his early years, Emerson seems to have thought that the faculties of African slaves were not equal to their owners, the white men. But this belief in racial inferiorities did not make Emerson a supporter of slavery. Emerson wrote later that year that, “ No ingenious sophistry can ever reconcile the unperverted mind to the pardon of Slavery; nothing but tremendous familiarity, and the bias of private interest.” Emerson saw the removal of people from their homeland, the treatment of slaves, and the self-seeking benefactors of slaves as gross injustices. For Emerson, slavery was a moral issues while superiority of the races was an issue Emerson tried to analyze from a scientific perspective based what he believe to be inherited traits.

Emerson saw himself as a man of Saxon descent. In a speech given in 1835 titled “Permanent Traits of the English National Genius”, Emerson said the following, “The inhabitants of the United States, especially of the Northern portion, are descended from the people of England and have inherited the traits of their national character.” Emerson saw direct ties between race based on national identity and the inherit nature of the human being. White Americans who were native-born in the United States, Emerson categorizes this population as its own “race”, had a unique position of being superior to other members of the nations. Emerson’s idea of race was more based on a shared culture, environment, and history, not the scientific traits that modern science defines as race. He even believed the native-born Americans were superior to European immigrants, such as the Irish, French, and German.

Later in his life, Emerson ideas on race changed when he became more involved in the abolitionist movement while at the same time he began to more thoroughly analyze the philosophical implications of race and racial hierarchies. His beliefs shifted focus to the potential outcomes of racial conflicts. Emerson racial views were closely related to his views on nationalism and national superiority, specifically that of the Saxons. Emerson used contemporary theories of race and natural science to support a theory of race development. He believed that the current political battle and the current enslavement of other races was an inevitable racial struggle, one that would result in the inevitable union of the United States. Such conflicts were necessary for the dialectic of change that would eventually allow the progress of the nation. In much of his later work, Emerson seems to allow the notion that different races will eventually mix in America. This hybridization process would lead to a superior race that would be to the advantage of the superiority of the United States. (Field 9). It is unclear whether or not Emerson believed that Africans would be involved in this hybridization, since much of his work on race seems to indicate that he believed in an early-Darwinist “survival of the fittest” theory, in which less superior races would eventually become obsolete.