INTRODUCTION. 25 



soon as a youth of this class is able to provide for his own wants, 

 he generally abandons the paternal home, considering himself 

 perfectly free from all filial obligations. 



There is another salient defect in the emancipated class, and 

 which became particularly manifest during the prevalence of cholera. 

 Though very punctilious on the score of respectability, the negro is, 

 nevertheless, exceedingly indolent, and the moment he can rely on 

 the aid of others, will not even endeavour to exert himself ; this 

 is, to a certain extent, common to all Creoles. A strong inclina- 

 tion also exists, on the part of the black, to consider all acts of 

 benevolence exercised towards him as his due, and not in the 

 light of a favour. I know of individuals of this class who, during 

 the cholera, with their small apartment well furnished, or receiving 

 abundant aid from their employers, would yet regularly apply for 

 their meals at the charitable soup-kitchens established for the 

 relief of the destitute, not that they really required them, but 

 only because " they would have their share ; " nor did the same 

 persons blush to say, " Since a man must die one day, he had 

 better die now ; then he has neither to pay for medical attendance, 

 medicines, coffin, grave, or funeral." 



Slavery, with its degrading influence, I readily concede, must 

 have contributed largely to the implanting of the above-men- 

 tioned defects in the negro character. During slavery, marriage 

 was not exactly discouraged; but, as it was generally allowed 

 only between individuals belonging to the same estate, the con- 

 sequence was that marriages were the rare exceptions, and con- 

 cubinage the general rule : in addition to this, the slave possessing 

 no civil right had no interest, as he had no benefit, in any civil 

 contract ; and it is well known that habits contracted during ages 

 cannot be uprooted in a few years. Again, the slave had very 

 little authority over his children, the care of them being left to 

 him only in their infant state ; these children, on the other hand, 

 being bound to obey and serve the master, were actually led to 

 cast aside the respect and attention due to the parent. Slavery 

 had in this, as in other cases, a fatal tendency to relax the natural 

 as well as the civil ties ; and it is not surprising that its effects are 

 still felt, after only sixteen years of freedom. 



I think it, therefore, due to the negro to say, that those vicious 

 features of his character which I have portrayed, are more the 

 offspring of ignorance and the consequences of a protracted state 

 of debasing bondage, than the effects of a wicked and perverse 

 nature. For, however prominent their faults, and, at times, 

 heinous their offences, it is notorious that they do not approach 

 to that degree of moral turpitude which characterises those of the 

 same class in Europe. The crimes committed by the negro 

 generally spring from sudden impulse and ungovernable passions, 

 and are not the result of base and selfish calculations. Seldom 



