On October 2, 1866, Engels replied to one of Marx’s enthusiastic letters about Tremaux with a long refutation of that charlatan’s theories. At the moment, we are concerned merely with what Engels had to say about Tremaux and Negroes. (As before, when I use the word n——-, it means that Engels inserted the offensive English term into the German text of his letter.)
“The stories about the N——-, Santa Maria, and about the transformation of whites into Negroes are laughable. Namely that the traditions of the Senegal n——s are worthy of unconditional belief precisely because the fellows don’t know how to write! . . .
The way the fellow explains how we Rhinelanders on our Devonian transitional rocks (which have not been under water since long before the era of coal formation) did not become idiots and N——s, he will perhaps show us in his second volume, or else assert that we really are n——-s.” -Engels (in private correspondence with Marx)
On October 2, 1866, Engels replied to one of Marx’s enthusiastic letters about Tremaux with a long refutation of that charlatan’s theories. At the moment, we are concerned merely with what Engels had to say about Tremaux and Negroes. (As before, when I use the word n——-, it means that Engels inserted the offensive English term into the German text of his letter.)
“The stories about the N——-, Santa Maria, and about the transformation of whites into Negroes are laughable. Namely that the traditions of the Senegal n——s are worthy of unconditional belief precisely because the fellows don’t know how to write! . . . The way the fellow explains how we Rhinelanders on our Devonian transitional rocks (which have not been under water since long before the era of coal formation) did not become idiots and N——s, he will perhaps show us in his second volume, or else assert that we really are n——-s.” -Engels (in private correspondence with Marx)