An old image that is recirculating on social media purportedly shows quotes on race by the Founding Fathers Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and member of the Virginia House of Delegates Henry Berry. The quotes, contextualized below, are accurate. One example of the post, shared over 12,000 times as of July 3, 2020, is visible
here . The posts attribute the following remarks to Franklin: “Why increase the sons of Africa, by planting them in America, where we have so fair an opportunity, by excluding all blacks and tawnys, of increasing the lovely white and red?” This quote comes from a 1751 essay entitled, “Observations Concerning the Increase of
Mankind” (
here ). This passage is visible at the end of the essay. The posts attribute the following comments to Jefferson: “I advanced it, therefore, as a suspicion only, that the blacks, whether originally a distinct race, or made distinct by time or circumstances, are inferior to the whites in the endowments of both body and mind.” Jefferson made these remarks in Notes on the State of Virginia, published in 1785 ( here ). The full text is available here . Annette Gordon-Reed, a Pulitzer Prize winning lawyer and historian who has written extensively on Jefferson’s relationship with the enslaved woman Sally Hemings, told PBS that despite Jefferson later walking back some of his statements from Notes, there is little evidence to support the idea that he ever held non-racist views of Black people ( here ). ABRAHAM LINCOLNThe posts attribute the following quote to Lincoln: “There is a physical difference between the white and the black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together... while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any man am in favor having the superior position assigned to the white race.” Lincoln made these remarks during one of a series of debates in 1858 with Stephen Douglas, when the men were vying for control in the Illinois General Assembly ( bit.ly/2Z4WkCV ). In the same speech Lincoln said: “I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races.” Lincoln is perhaps best known for issuing the Emancipation Proclamation, a key moment in the process for legally abolishing slavery in the U.S. as of January 1, 1863 ( here ). Henry Louis Gates Jr., American literary critic and historian, is one of a number of Black scholars who has written on the apparent complexity that defined Lincoln’s views on the institution of slavery and its relation to race ( here ). HENRY BERRYThe posts attribute the following to Berry: “We have, as far as possible, closed every avenue by which the light may enter the slave’s mind. If we could extinguish the capacity to see the light, our work will be complete. They would then be on the level of the beast of the fields and we then should be safe.” Berry made these remarks during an 1832 speech before the Virginia House of Delegates on the abolition of slavery ( bit.ly/3dUnjW4 ). Berry, a slave-holder himself at the time of his 1832 speech, advocated for gradually diminishing the prevalence of slavery, and ostensibly toward its eventual abolition. “That slavery is a grinding curse upon this state, I had supposed would have been admitted by all,” Berry said at the start of his address (page 2). “Yet I am for maintaining the bonds by which we hold this property now,” he remarked later on (page 4). “The evil [of slavery] was gradually entailed upon us, and can only be gradually removed.” (page 4) For additional reading on the Founding Fathers' views towards slavery, see here . To read more about the debate over Lincoln's attitudes on race relations and abolition see here and here . VERDICTTrue. Quotes from Founding Fathers Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Henry Berry are true. This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our work to fact-check social media posts here . for-phone-onlyfor-tablet-portrait-upfor-tablet-landscape-upfor-desktop-upfor-wide-desktop-up
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