The "N" word...

I would not look that far back for answers. The views back then would be shaped by what was known, and it was perfectly reasonable to think that if they looked different than us they were. Evolution had just been figured out and there was no understanding of genetics. As a man of science, I would have likely followed Darwinian logic that we lived in Europe, they lived in Africa, divergent evolution would happen (which it did slightly but we would have no idea how long ago it was at the time,) and since we created an advanced civilization and they didn’t, we must have evolved more intelligence. It wasn’t until we actually could look at our DNA and discovered that we only seperated a few thousand years ago that we determined that our brains are exactly the same and much longer for that to be accepted by society as a whole.

 

A quibble: The assertion that "they didn't" is definitely not an un-controversial assertion. Not that my quibble is much relevant in this specific discussion, since you're talking about beliefs, true or false, and I'm sure that was the belief.

 

You can probably find other racist words to supplement it with. I'm concerned that the overuse of the "N" word may desensitize the reader to it. It's the law of diminishing returns.

 

I was making an assumption about what I would know if I lived in 1860 NYC. I’d probably have heard of the Egyptians, but most of my history would have been of Rome and what came after. I would likely have had the belief that most Africans lived in primitive tribes, which I would have likely considered lesser than our western system.