“[T]he number of purely White people is proportionally very small. All of Africa is black or tawney. Asia chiefly tawney. America (exclusive of the new comers) wholly so. And in Europe, the Spaniards, Italians, and French are generally of what we call a swarthy complexion; the more northern Nations with the English make the principal body of White People on the Face of the Earth. I could wish their numbers were increased. And while we are, as I may call it, scouring our planet, by clearing America of woods, and so making this side of our globe reflect a brighter light to the eyes of inhabitants in Mars or Venus, why should we in the sight of superior beings, darken its people? [...] I am partial to the complexion of my Country, for such kind of partiality is natural to Mankind.”

Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind, Benjamin Franklin, 1755