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The International Journal of the Royal Society of Thailand
Volume XII, 2020

the Spanish Empire, pointed out that it was Humboldt who awakened Latin
America with his pen. 9

A generous and liberal spirit

Humboldt condemned slavery as oppressive, inhumane and criminal.
At the end of his voyage to Latin America Humboldt took the long route home,
going around North America before returning to Europe. He said that since
he had seen the wonders of nature, now he wanted to see a society ruled under
the principle of liberty. So, he met with President Jefferson and they became
10
friends. Humboldt kept sending his latest books to Jefferson. But at the same
time, as Jefferson was a slave holder, Humboldt could not understand how
someone like him could reconcile his ideas of liberty and equality with slavery.
11
Throughout his life Humboldt remained very critical of slavery. Humboldt

adored American liberty and said he is half an American, but he was very upset
with slavery in America and wrote about this in his books. Slavery held
Humboldt’s attention throughout his life. In 1856 the American translation of
his Essay on the Island of Cuba entirely omitted his criticism of slavery.
12
Humboldt was very disappointed and emphasized that his comment on slavery
was the most important part of his book. In 1857 he was very angry with the
Supreme Court decision ruling that slaves were not U.S. citizens and that they
could not sue for their own freedom. Prussia, in the same month, launched
13

9 Wulf, op. cit., 145, citing a Letter from Simon Bolivar to Alexander von Humboldt, 10 November
1821
10 Ibid. 96
Humboldt did not criticize the President himself but condemned slavery as “disgrace” to Jeffeson’s
11
friend and architect in his letter to William Thornton, 20 June 1804, in: Moheit, Ulrike (ed.), 1993.
Humboldt, Alexander von, Briefe aus Amerika 1799-1804. Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 199-200; See also
Worrall, Simon, Why is the Man Who Predicted Climate Change Forgotten? In: National Gegraphic,
13 September 2015: <https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/09/150913-humboldt-
south-america-nature-book-talk-simon-worrall-andrea-wulf-darwin-orinoco/> [cited 17.12.2019]
12 Wulf, op. cit., 277, 433; An English edition of his Political Essay on the Island of Cuba, tranlated
by John S. Thrasher, published in New York by Derby & Jackson in 1856 edited out his criticism of
slavery. See also Humboldt’s complain in Humboldt, Alexander von. “The Works of Humboldt and
J. S. Thrasher on Cuba”, The New York Herald, August 13, 1856, 8, col. C. (original at the Libraryof
Congress)
13 Dred Scott v. Sandford, 1857. 60 U.S. (19 How.), 393. This decision was superseded by the
Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery in 1865 as consequence of the American Civil War.
See Rebok, Sandra, Enlightened Correspondents: The Transatlantic Dialogue of Thomas
Jefferson and Alexander von Humboldt. In: The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, 2008.
116, 4, 328, 336ff.

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