In 1860, Mississippi senator
Jefferson Davis presents a proposal of unlimited rights for states and enslavers; he also objects to federal funds being directed toward Black education, claiming: “This Government was not founded by negroes for negroes.” He argues that the racial hierarchy of white supremacy and Black inferiority was “stamped from the beginning.” It briefly seems as if
polygenesis will become the broadly accepted story about human origins once and for all. However, everything changes with the publication of
The Origin of Species by the British antislavery biologist
Charles Darwin. Rejecting the idea that every species was individually and specifically created, Darwin proposes that species evolve over time, moving toward “perfection.” He mainly focuses on nonhuman animal life, but the implications for humanity are enormous.