‘Am I Not a Man and a Brother?’ Phrenology and Anti-slavery

It would be a mistake to dismiss the pseudo-science of phrenology as merely discredited, populist and racist. African American proponents and opponents, as well as those engaged in the debate over slavery, recognised the utility of phrenology, made more potent by a notional objectivity that helped to obscure the highly partisan aesthetic standards, sociological assumptions and ideological posturing thoroughly embedded within its theoretical framework. As a result, this discourse was fought over, subverted and appropriated by those arguing over slavery and trying to define and interpret the concepts of race and racial difference.