The other apartment, where the house of assembly hold their conclaves, was appropriated for the eating part of the amusement; and a very good amusement some of the company seemed to think it, if I may judge from appearances. On one long table was displayed a cold collation, consisting of savoury dishes, suited to the tastes of all, and where, for the charge of 1s. sterling, any one might fare most sumptuously. Those who preferred it, partook of sandwiches, for which the moderate charge of 2¼d. sterling was demanded; and upon my entrance, my eyes were first attracted by seeing a huge widow-Barnaby-looking woman, devouring them with a voracity I certainly did not expect to witness in that place. The other table displayed confections of various beautiful forms and kinds, interspersed with fruits and flowers; and where the younger people also seemed to find full employment.
Here again I could not help observing the low appearance of many of the “young men,” who, with hats placed on one side of their heads, and immense quantities of black hair smoothed to a half-straight fashion by the assistance of a plentiful supply of lard pomatum, and their thumbs stuck most (un)gracefully in their waistcoat pockets, were pacing the room and shewing off their smart apparel. I afterwards understood that many of these over-dressed specimens of mortality contrived to enter the room without paying the “quarter dollar” (1s. sterling) entrance money, by fascinating, I suppose, the door-keeper, who was too simple-hearted to denounce these peacock-like persons of conduct a sober-robed owl would scorn to be guilty of.
At length the appetites of all seemed to be appeased,—their motives for coming (to see and be seen) fully answered,—their appropriated sum of money expended,—and themselves loaded with pincushions and scent-bags, babies’ caps, and reticules, they began to disperse, and we ourselves took our departure, leaving some of the matrons, who had an eye to business, very eagerly making bargains for sundry portions of beef and ham, tongues, poultry, and cold mutton, jellies and cheese-cakes, and other gastronomic relics.
[[42]] This is the creole way of terming these different castes: the Spanish call them mulattos, tercerones, quarterons, and quinterones. There are also some intermediate names for the issue of unions between the negroes and coloured people, as sambos, &c.; but the general term for persons of colour is, quadroons.
[[43]] In illustration of this it may be remarked, that there are families where some of the brothers or sisters are fair enough to be taken for English people; while the rest are scarcely distinguishable from negroes in colour.
[[44]] In these remarks, the author begs to say, she means no disparagement to the other professors of these several trades. She is well aware that Antigua boasts a most respectable class of tradesmen—white, black, and coloured—who are an honour to the colony in which they reside.
[[45]] A great portion of this class of persons are the offspring of those illicit alliances already alluded to in the times of slavery, and who did not receive their freedom until after the general emancipation in 1834, or within a short time previous to that event, when they became so depreciated in value, that their owners were satisfied to dispose of them at a trifling remuneration.
CHAPTER XLVI.
Prejudice—Its former and present character—An act of resentment—The “Prejudice Bell”—Exclusion of persons of colour from offices of trust and polished society—The dawn of better days—The assertions of some authors contradicted—Domestic character of the coloured gentry—Hospitality—A day at a coloured gentleman’s country-house—Dwellings—Marriages—Great suppression of illicit connexions within these last few years—Funerals—A scene of riot in former days—Provincialisms.