Includes bibliographical references (pages [275]-293) and index
Introduction: Tissue samples in the land of conjecture -- Paper trails: writing the African, 1450-1750 -- Sameness and science, 1730-1750 -- The problem of difference: philosophes and the processing of African "ethnography, " 1750-1755 -- The natural history of slavery, 1770-1802 -- Coda: black Africans and the enlightenment legacy.