When I read The Life and Times of Fredrick Douglas, one passage always stayed with me. After speaking to an abolitionist audience, Douglas considered the evening a great success, because he concluded his talk believing these people were convinced he was equally human with them. Those who saw the TV show Roots can remember the president of the black college being asked to sing by his benefactor to convince the woman she was with about how precious these people were because of their wonderful voices. This view of blacks as less the truly human was scientifically validated by Darwin’s writings. In the nineteenth century, even the strongest supporters of black freedom questioned whether they were as fully human as themselves and evidently that view has not changed. I like to think of abolitionists as the nineteenth century equivalent of PETA.
Darwin's writings validated his prejudices, not the subhumanity of black people.