160 NEGROES IN LOUISIANA. [CHAP. XXIX. 



likely to improve, and will probably outstrip them in 

 knowledge and power. 



When we sat down to dinner in the cabin, one 

 of the Creoles, of very genteel &quot;appearance, was so 

 dark that I afterwards asked an American, out of 

 curiosity, whether he thought my neighbour at table 

 had a dash of negro blood in his veins. He said he 

 had been thinking so, and it had made him feel very 

 uncomfortable during dinner. I was so unprepared 

 for this manifestation of anti-negro feeling, that I 

 had difficulty in keeping my countenance. The same 

 messmate then told me that the slaves had lately 

 risen on an estate we were just passing, on the right 

 bank of the river, below New Orleans, but had been 

 quickly put down. He said that the treatment of 

 them had greatly improved within the last eight 

 years, keeping pace steadily with the improved 

 civilisation of the whites. The Creoles, he said, fed 

 their negroes well, but usually gave them no beds, 

 but blankets only to lie down upon. They were 

 kind in their feelings towards them ; but, owing to 

 their improvident habits, they secured no regular 

 medical attendance, and lost more black children 

 than the American planters. 



I afterwards remarked that the growth of New 

 Orleans seemed to show that a large city may in 

 crease and nourish in a Slave State ; but Dr. Car 

 penter and Mr. Wilde both observed, that the white 

 race has been superseding the negroes. Ten years 

 ago, say they, all the draymen of New Orleans, a 

 numerous class, and the cabmen, were coloured. Now, 

 they are nearly all white. The servants at the great 



