Talk:The History of White People

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Verification of Emerson-related claims[edit]

The claim is made that in this book, Painter notes "It was Emerson’s belief that “the sacrifice of the poor, hardworking races like the German’s, the Irish, and the African are for the good of the more advanced races, like the Saxon’s was nothing other than the working out of inevitable—laws of Nature. Fate transformed national opportunism into the destiny of races”[12]" with the citation going to no specific page in the book. Looking at a copy available at this url:

http://f.biyuti.com/Nell-Irvin-PainterHistoryOfWhitePeople.pdf

the closest quote seems to be on page 131 where Painter writes

"Emerson had mulled over these issues in his journal as early as 1851: 'Too much guano. The German & Irish nations, like the Negro, have a deal of guano in their destiny. They are I ferried over the Atlantic, & carted over America to ditch & to drudge, to make the land fertile, & corn cheap, & then to lie down prematurely to make the grass a spot of greener grass on the prairie.'"

with a citation pointing to

Journal CO, 1851, pp. 28-29, in Journals, vol. 11, 1848-1851: 376

This seems to be a nonexistent source. Firstly, there is no volume 11 of Emerson's journals (They span 10 volumes. The space of time that she cites for her volume is between volumes 7 and 8). There is a copy of volume 7 at this url:

http://www.perfectidius.com/Volume_7_1845-1848.pdf

and a copy of volume 8 at this url:

http://www.perfectidius.com/Volume_8_1849-1855.pdf

Volume 8 covers the year of 1851, when Painter claims Emerson commented on the relative value of races as quoted above. The only mention of guano is of direct relation to guano ships in south America (not at all what Painter is referring to).

The quote included in the article is not only incorrectly citing the book, but the book itself uses an apparently baseless claim about Emerson. I would like to know if anyone is able to find the source Painter is truly referring to in the event I have made a mistake searching for her citation.

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding what you're asking, because I found the "guano" quote in Emerson's writings very easily [1] –Roscelese (talk ⋅ contribs) 06:50, 12 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]