Benjamin Rush

     Nor let it be said, in the present age, that their black colour (as it is commonly called) either subjects them to, or qualifies them for slavery.  The vulgar notion of their being descended from Cain, who was supposed to have been marked with this colour, is too absurd to need a refutation. - Without enquiring into the cause of this blackness, I shall only add upon this subject, that so far from being a curse, it subjects the Negroes to no inconveniences; but, on the contrary, qualifies them for that part of the globe in which Providence has placed them. The ravages of heat, diseases and time, appear less in their faces than in a white one; and when we exclude variety of colour from our ideas of beauty, they may be said to possess everything necessary to constitute it in common with the white people…
-“An Address to the Inhabitants of the British Settlements in America, Upon Slave Keeping” (1773) by Benjamin Rush

      Their skin color does not make them potential slaves. The notion that black people are decedents from Cain is so silly it does need to be proven. There is no cause for being black.  It’s not a curse, nor is it inconvenient. Their skin tone is appropriate for where they originated. Their skin does not wither the way white faces do. When we take away color thinking we are enhancing beauty, they possess it just as the white people.

      Benjamin Rush wrote this because he opposed slavery.  

      Many people, of different nationalities believe that the darker your skin, the uglier you are.  This was like a breakthrough for that time.  Black people were frowned on, and broken down, all because they looked different.  If Cain and Able were brothers, how can only one be black?  Was it because he was jealous and evil? That is absurd!  Rush saw passed the physical difference and saw the beauty; furthermore he admitted it! 

     This is priceless to me. To this day people of color are discriminated against.  Rush pointed out that it had to have been the difference in race that made the slave owners choose black people to be slaves.

Val