Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 1 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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Wherever Men Of Colour Are Either
Considered As Slaves Or As Having Been Enfranchised, That Which
Constitutes Nobility Is Hereditary Liberty - The Proud Boast Of
Having Never Reckoned Among Ancestors Any But Freemen.
In the
colonies, the colour of the skin is the real badge of nobility.
In
Mexico, as well as Peru, at Caracas as in the island of Cuba, a
bare-footed fellow with a white skin, is often heard to exclaim:
"Does that rich man think himself whiter than I am?" The population
which Europe pours into America being very considerable, it may
easily be supposed, that the axiom, 'every white man is noble'
(todo blanco es caballero), must singularly wound the pretensions
of many ancient and illustrious European families. But it may be
further observed, that the truth of this axiom has long since been
acknowledged in Spain, among a people justly celebrated for
probity, industry, and national spirit. Every Biscayan calls
himself noble; and there being a greater number of Biscayans in
America and the Philippine Islands, than in the Peninsula, the
whites of that race have contributed, in no small degree, to
propagate in the colonies the system of equality among all men
whose blood has not been mixed with that of the African race.
Moreover, the countries of which the inhabitants, even without a
representative government, or any institution of peerage, annex so
much importance to genealogy and the advantages of birth, are not
always those in which family aristocracy is most offensive.
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