Before Color Prejudice: The Ancient View of Blacks

SNOWDEN, Frank M., Jr.

ISBN 10: 0674063805 / ISBN 13: 9780674063808

Published by Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1983

About this Item

First edition. 164pp. Illustrated with black and white plates. Fine in a near fine dust jacket with slight edgewear. Advance Review Copy with publisher's slip laid in.

Seller Inventory # 614829

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Before Color Prejudice: The Ancient View of Blacks
• Publisher: Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts
• Publication Date: 1983
• ISBN 10: 0674063805
• ISBN 13: 9780674063808
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine

About this title

Synopsis

In this richly illustrated account of black–white contacts from the Pharaohs to the Caesars, Frank Snowden demonstrates that the ancients did not discriminate against blacks because of their color.

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 favorable. In science, philosophy, and religion color was not the basis of theories concerning inferior peoples. And early Christianity saw in the black man a dramatic symbol of its catholic mission.

This book sheds light on the reasons for the absence in antiquity of virulent color prejudice and for the difference in attitudes of whites toward blacks in ancient and modern societies.

About the Author

Frank M. Snowden, Jr., was Professor of Classics, Emeritus, at Howard University.