A blafard is an imaginary creature purportedly found in the early United States. Blafards, also called "kackerlackes", were "strange albinos long surmised to be the result of some kind of simian crossbreeding", but of an "accidental variety". Blafards were imagined by Europeans, notably Cornelius De Pauw in the 18th century. This creature was a symbol of the degeneration of America in the minds of Europeans, along with the "hermaphrodite", which "epitomized Americans' sexual disorder.
Blafards were imagined to be "caused by a deficiency 'in their parents' spermatic liquor'" and were "absolutely deprived of the power of generation, or did not engender children that resemble them".
Blafards were a manifestation of the early Anti-Americanism that originated in Europe in the 18th century. Their earliest mention is in the works of Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon and Cornelius De Pauw.
Notes
- Roger, Philippe (2005). The American Enemy: The History of French Anti-Americanism. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press. pp. 20–21. ISBN 0-226-72368-2.
- Roger 2002. 21.
References
- De Pauw, Cornelius (1768). Recherches philosophiques sur les Américains ou mémoires intéressants pour servir à l'histoire de l'espèce humaine. Paris: Jean-Michel Place.
- Roger, Philippe (2005). The American Enemy: The History of French Anti-Americanism [L'Ennemi Américain: Généalogie de l'antiaméricanisme français]. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-72368-2.
- Webb, Daniel (1806). A General History of the Americans, of their Customs, Manners, and Colours: An History of the Patagonians, of the Blafards and White Negroes; History of Peru; An History of the Manners, Customs &c of the Chinese and Egyptians, Selected from M. Pauw. Rochdale: T. Wood.