CHAP. XXIX.] NEGROES IN LOUISIANA. 125 



had done toward the Canadian &quot; habitants,&quot; that I should have 

 had more pleasure in associating with them than with a large 

 portion of their Anglo-American rivals, who, from a greater read 

 iness to welcome new ideas, are more 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 appearance, was so dark that I afterward asked 

 an American, out of curiosity, whether he thought my neighbor 

 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 counte 

 nance. 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 civ 

 ilization 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 toward them ; but, 

 owing to their improvident habits, they secured no regular med 

 ical attendance, and lost more black children than the American 

 planters. 



I afterward remarked that the growth of New Orleans seemed 

 to show that a large city may increase and flourish in a slave 

 state ; but Dr. Carpenter arid 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 colored. Now, they are nearly all white. 

 The servants at the great hotels were formerly of the African, 

 now they are of the European race. Nowhere is the jealousy 

 felt by the Irish toward the negroes more apparent. According 

 to some estimates, in a permanently resident population not much 

 exceeding 80,000, there are only 22,000 colored persons, and a 

 large proportion of these are free. 



Over a door in the principal street of New Orleans we read 

 the inscription, &quot;Negroes on sale here.&quot; It is natural that 



