Blacks as Seen by Science Fiction Writer Jules Verne

The Portrayal of Blacks in Jules Verne's Voyages Extraordinaires by Peter Aberger ties together the Victorian science fiction writer Jules Verne and his views on slavery in through his fictional works.

Aberger makes 2 main points:

1. Verne saw American blacks and African blacks in very different lights, causing him to write about them in polar ways.
He portrayed African blacks as savage creatures who needed British colonization for their own well-being and progress in novels such as Robur le conquérant (1886 p.201).
He viewed American blacks as more civilized because of their relations to a white civilization. Denouncing slavery, he made a series of strong abolitionist characters such as plantation owner James Burbank in Norde contre Sud (The American Civil War - 1887 p.200-201).

2. Aberger claims that in Verne's later years he had a "general belief that progress, understood in the rationalist form of the eighteenth century, will lead to happiness."
Though Verne's view on progress is regarding colonization, it coincides with many views of progress in America during the times of great technological progress of the 19th century. For example, Verne's French contemporary Marquis de Condorcet believed that through rational thought - using senses and communication with others - people could understand all facets of nature. He thought that man was constantly headed toward progress and a utopian society (interestingly, one of the main ingredients for this utopia was a strict view of equality in all sense of the word - race, gender, religion, etc.). Meanwhile, a little earlier and across the pond here, Alexander Hamilton and Tench Coxe were great thinkers in favor of technology if applied through rational and economic means.



This was a very interesting article, bringing together many of the themes we have discussed in class. In addition, it was an easy and quick read!