The Negro in the West Indies. 247 



he was best suited. ' A paternal Government' interfered 

 to prote6l his rights on the slightest occasion. Within 

 easy reach were sugar plantations where his services as 

 a free labourer were welcomed and repaid at a highly 

 remunerative rate. In facl, on whichever side he looked, 

 an open field was before him ; and I confess he gave 

 great promise of justifying the prophesies of his cham- 

 pions. He bought land and laboured upon it : he cared for 

 his live-stock and it increased ; he obeyed the teachings 

 of Christian pastors and spent his money liberally upon 

 humane institutions such as schools, churches, etc. His 

 own house, if not a home as we understand the term, 

 was a substantial and decent dwelling place. His friends 

 were jubilant. Vi6lory was shouted on every side and 

 we were heartily glad to have come out of the affair so 

 satisfaftorily. 



But it was all a mistake. His civilization was a dream ; 

 his progress a myth ; the Ethiopian had not " changed 

 his skin." The vi6lory credited to the moral elevation of 

 the ex-slave was due to the power of the ' dead hand' of 

 slavery. Fifty years have passed since the news of 

 * freedom' crossed the Atlantic, and the condition of the 

 black is lower, infinitely lower, to-day than it was then. 

 A half a century affords time to overcome or lose a habit, 

 and the negro has availed himself of it to free himself 

 from the habits of industry and obedience that slavery so 

 bitterly, but beneficently, taught him. In proportion as 

 he has been left to himself he has sunk to his old plane 

 of semi-barbarism. Squalid surroundings, negledled 

 holdings, fallen and falling homesteads, trouble him not. 

 This very morning I had occasion to walk across a once 

 beautiful estate owned by some fifty negro families. 



112 



