In 1856, two American "race scientists", Josiah C. Nott and Henry Hotze, both ardent white supremacists, translated Essai sur l'inégalité des races humaines into English. Champions of slavery, they found in Gobineau's anti-black writings a convenient justification for the "peculiar institution".[86] Nott and Hotz found much to approve of in the Essai such as: "The Negro is the most humble and lags at the bottom of the scale.