author
Ariel
1799–1883
Known to readers under the pseudonym Ariel, this 19th-century American pamphleteer wrote a work that is now remembered mainly as an example of racist pseudoscience rather than lasting literature.
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About the author
Published as Ariel, Buckner H. Payne (1799–1883) was an American clergyman, publisher, and pamphleteer. His best-known work, The Negro: What Is His Ethnological Status?, appeared in the years after the Civil War and argued for deeply racist ideas that have since been widely rejected.
Today, interest in Ariel is mostly historical. His writing is studied not for literary achievement, but as evidence of how prejudice was dressed up as scholarship in the 19th century and used to defend white supremacist beliefs.
Because he published under a pseudonym, older catalogs and editions sometimes list the author simply as Ariel. Modern reference sources identify Ariel as Buckner H. Payne.