Originally posted by chithappens
This isn't certain. You are assuming this is what Hume believed.
Yes, I said this was an assumption myself. But that's because I wasn't alive in the 18th century so I couldn't have looked over his shoulder to see what literature he was reading. I am offering this as a more reasonable alternative to your claim--which was that Hume was talking about the entire continent of Africa when he used the word "negroes."
This changed over the eras. I'm not sure anyone can make certain claims that the current population is the same as two millenniums ago.
The artwork produced by the ancient egyptians shows them as looking different from other afro-asiatic peoples. They looked different from other afro-asiatic peoples in the 18th century as well (when hume was around), and still do today.
Regardless, the topic of Hume is still extremely stupid because there were kingdoms throughout Africa. Africa was the richest conteninent. To this day, nations strip Africa of all their shit.
"Historically Africans are made to sway like leaves on the wind, impervious and indifferent to any form of civilization, a people absent from scientific discovery, philosophy or the higher arts. We are left to believe that almost nothing can come out of Africa , other than raw material"
- Owen 'Alik Shahadah ((he's a modern-day african academic, btw))