In this pioneering work, William B. Cohen traces the ways in which negative attitudes toward blacks became deeply embedded in French culture. Examining the forces that shaped these views, Cohen reveals the persistent inequality of French interactions with blacks in Africa, in the slave colonies of the West Indies, and in France itself. A key role in the formation of negative stereotypes is shown to have been played by the 18th century philosophes, who, while proclaiming human equality, fostered doctrines of biological racism that emerged fully formed in the 19th-century's newly developing sciences, especially physical anthropology. After discussing the process by which these images were built, Cohen analyzes the types of social relations that evolved. Now a classic, The French Encounter with Africans, is essential reading for anyone engaged in current discussions of European relations with non-Europeans and with issues of racism, ethnicity, identity, colonialism, and empire.