Includes bibliographical references (p. 422-456) and index.

The intimate 'Blackamoor' -- Racial numb-skulls -- All nations of one blood -- Living in slave countries-- Common descent : from the father of man to the father of all mammals -- Hybridizing humans -- This odious deadly subject -- Domestic animals and domestic institutions -- Oh for shame Agassiz! -- The contamination of Negro blood -- The secret science drifts from its sacred cause -- Cannibals and the Confederacy in London -- The descent of the races.

There is a mystery surrounding Darwin: How did this quiet, respectable gentleman, a pillar of his parish, come to embrace one of the most radical ideas in the history of human thought? Darwin risked a great deal in publishing his theory of evolution, so something very powerful--a moral fire--must have propelled him. That moral fire, argue authors Desmond and Moore, was a passionate hatred of slavery. They draw on a wealth of fresh manuscripts, correspondence, notebooks, diaries, and even ships' logs to show how Darwin's abolitionism had deep roots in his mother's family and was reinforced by his voyage on the Beagle as well as by events in America. Leading apologists for slavery in Darwin's time argued that blacks and whites were separate species, with whites created superior. Darwin believed that the races belonged to the same human family, and slavery was therefore a sin.--From publisher description.