“Not singular in his opinion,” observed Newton.
“Men do all work here, sar: women only talk,” continued the negro. “My country, men nebber work at all—women do all work, and feed men.”
“Then what does the man do?” inquired Berecroft.
“Man, sar,” replied the negro proudly, “man go fight—go kill.”
“Is that all?”
“Yes, sar, that all.”
“So, you then mean to say, that if you could go back to Ashantee now, you would remain there?”
“Yes, sar, stay there—do no work—sleep all day—make women feed me.”
“How inveterate is early habit!” observed Mr Berecroft. “This man, although free in a civilised country, would return to his idleness and resume his former ignorance.”
“And so would every slave not born in the country. It requires one or two generations to destroy this savage nature,” replied Kingston. “I believe idleness, like gout, to be an hereditary disease, either in black or white; I have often observed it in the latter. Now, until man labours there is no chance of civilisation; and, improved as the race of Africa have been in these islands, I still think that if manumitted, they would all starve. In their own country nature is so bountiful that little or no labour is required for the support of life; but in these islands the soil, although luxuriant, must be nurtured.”