ID# 1950:
Isaac Costa letter to Karl Pearson, about race mixing in Jamaica with reference to mulatto "just under your nose" (10/3/1908)
Date:
1908
Pages: (1|2|3|4|5|6|7)
Source:
University College London, KP, 382

Isaac Costa letter to Karl Pearson, about race mixing in Jamaica with reference to mulatto &quote;just under your nose&quote; (10/3/1908)

[handwritten letter continued] 3. the white or black races. I have never seen a single case of reversion to either [illegible] mulatto or negro. 4) "Mulatto + mulatto. Is this usually a mulatto in colour? Our theorists say 25% are pure white skins, 25% pure black skins, & only 50% mulattos" K.P. This statement of those whom you call the "theorists," is the most ridiculously incorrect of the lot; indeed it would be very comic to make this statement in public before persons who knew. There are now other slight variations from the usual mulatto-brown or mulatto-yellow, but you may be quite certain that no pure black skins or pure white skins come from mulatto + mulatto. You can state this dogmatically. I trust I have made myself more or less plain. I have to write guardedly in one respect, as I have no experience of hybrid races except in Jamaica, but we have plenty of experience of them here. I came here as an infant of 5 months old, & except for 5 1/2 years spent in London struggling for my M.B. have lived here all my life. I mix with all sorts and combinations of colours, have a large but poor practice, & come into contact with them every day. What I have said is fairly correct. "Sports & throw-backs" do occur, but are really rare; the milder form, i.e. the form wh. Is [underscore]barely[end underscore] evident, just [underscore]barely[end underscore] evident in truth[?], is [end]

Copyright 1999-2004: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory; American Philosophical Society; Truman State University; Rockefeller Archive Center/Rockefeller University; University of Albany, State University of New York; National Park Service, Statue of Liberty National Monument; University College, London; International Center of Photography; Archiv zur Geschichte der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Berlin-Dahlem; and Special Collections, University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
The images and text in this Archive are solely for educational and scholarly uses. The materials may be used in digital or print form in reports, research, and other projects that are not offered for sale. Materials in this archive may not be used in digital or print form by organizations or commercial concerns, except with express permission.