Before Color Prejudice: The Ancient Views of Blacks
Snowden, Frank
Publisher: Harvard University Press, Cambridge, USA
Date Written: 01/03/1991
Year Published: 1991
Pages: 176pp ISBN: 9780674063815
In this richly-illustrated account of black-white contacts from the Pharaohs to the Caesars, Frank M. Snowden demonstrates that the ancients did not discriminate against blacks because of their colour. For three thousand years Mediterranean whites intermittently came in contact with African blacks in commerce and war, and left a record of these encounters in art and in written documents. The blacks -- most commonly known as Kushites, Ethiopians, or Nubians -- were redoubtable warriors and commanded the respect of their white adversaries. The overall view of blacks was highly favourable. In science, philosophy, and religion colour was not the basis of theories concerning inferior peoples.
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