It was not only the soreness of spirit which this state of affairs inflicted upon the coloured man, but as Prejudice was the offspring of Slavery, it was consequently the ground-work of that horrible system of licentiousness which rendered Antigua among the other West India Islands famous, or rather infamous, for so many years. The coloured women participated in the prejudice of their masters, and as they became the mothers of female children, they reared them up in the same spirit, and inculcated into their minds that it was more honourable and praiseworthy to inhabit the harem of a white man, than to be the lawful wife of a man of colour. This conduct was, of course, the grave of all domestic peace, the destroyer of connubial love; and by its dire, its demoniacal influences, caused the fairest island in the world to become, in a moral point of view, a dreary marsh, exhaling the poisonous miasma.
Brighter days have, however, at length dawned; the unhallowed custom of concubinage has greatly decreased; and, indeed, except among some of the old white planters or merchants, who have retained the sins of their youth, and some of the low coloured people, such alliances are generally reprobated.
The assertion, however, that prejudice is entirely done away with, is incorrect. It still exists, and that, perhaps, very strongly; but policy forbids, in great measure, its outward show. It is true, that white and coloured gentlemen walk, and talk, and dine together—drink sangaree at one another’s houses, sit in the same juror’s box, and are invited, sans distinction, at “Government House;” yet, at the same time, there is a lurking dislike to them on account of colour, which ever steps in as a barrier to social intercourse. It is said, that the white ladies are the strongest upholders of prejudice; but that their refusal to mix with this class of persons is not occasioned from any shade of colour, but on account of their general illegitimacy. This, however, is not the sole cause; for there are illegitimate white people, whom they are in the constant habit of meeting without any aversion; while, at the same time, many of the people of colour, particularly the younger ones, are the offspring of parents who have been legally united within the sacred walls of the temple of God, and whose intellectual attainments fit them for any society.
It has also been said, that the coloured classes are not of a sufficient respectability to move among the white inhabitants; and some few years ago, the question was asked, (in excuse for excluding them from society,) by one who then filled the highest station in Antigua—“Would you wish to ask your tailor or your shoemaker to dine with you?” To this query a most unequivocal negative might have been given. Differences of rank ought to be observed; and no one can be blamed for preserving a certain degree of etiquette in the arrangement of their parties. But, at the same time—“Are all coloured people tailors and shoemakers?” “No!” as before remarked, among them are some of the most respectable merchants and planters; and the whites themselves, with but few exceptions, follow no higher occupations.
Let the lower class of coloured people know and keep their proper distance, the same as the lower classes do in the mother country; but allow the upper ones to hold that place in society which their worth, respectability, wealth, and general deportment, entitles them to.
I have already spoken of the extreme familiarity of some of the low persons of colour, who rest all their pretensions to gentility upon their smart clothes, or their ability to keep a horse or a horse and gig. It could not be expected or wished that such persons should be received into good society, any more than the low and ignorant of my own countrymen. There is also another class of coloured people which, although, perhaps, equally talented and prosperous, from the nature of the business they follow, are excluded from the tables of the great. Such distinctions as these are but equitable, and consequently, cannot be called prejudice; but to debar the whole caste from polished society on account of colour, is an illiberality unworthy of the “age we live in.”
From a glance at prejudice, and its attendant evils, I will proceed in my remarks upon the domestic character of the coloured Creoles. I have already spoken of their hospitality, which is a virtue apparently indigenous in the island; for white, brown, and black, rich and poor, seem, as far as lies in their power, equally open to its influence. The country, as any part of the island beyond the precincts of the capital is termed, is divided into small towns, (described in the previous pages;) a few settlements, which have sprung up since emancipation, and sugar-estates, or grazing-farms, which, with their “great houses,” managers’ and overseers’ dwellings, and negro huts, form themselves complete villages. There are no hotels or places of public entertainment, where the sun-worn traveller can obtain “rest and refuge;” but if only acquainted by name, you can take the liberty of driving to any of these country residences, where you are sure of meeting with a polite and cordial reception.
Most of these dwellings are very pleasantly situated, generally upon a gentle slope, and every breeze that blows finds a ready entrance at the open windows. Some of them are built in the cottage style, with only one floor, elevated a few feet from the ground; just affording sufficient room for a snug and cool cellar, where the good inmates store their generous wines. These houses contain a spacious hall, (the principal room in a West Indian house, occupying about two-thirds of the whole dwelling, and where meals are taken,) a parlour, or drawing-room, generally opening with folding-doors into the first-named apartment, a small morning room, four or five bedrooms, and the remainder of the building is divided into butler’s pantry, larders, and a kind of lobby, where the numerous domestics assemble, and when not actually engaged in waiting at table, or ministering to their own ungovernable appetites, stretch themselves along the floor in all the luxuriance of idleness. The kitchens are detached from the house, for the purpose of evading the heat and smoke from the wood fires; and contiguous to them are a long line of “negro rooms,” (as they term the apartments in this country intended for the use of the domestics,) stables, and coach-houses, interspersed with “stock” houses for poultry, and pens for the accommodation of those unseemly animals vulgarly called hogs.
These country residences are seldom devoid of company, who, in parties of three or four, leave the confinement of the town for the advantage of the purer air. The days are spent much after the same fashion. Between the hours of five and six in the morning, a tap comes at your chamber-door, and a black-visaged smiling damsel enters with shoeless feet, and grinning lips shewing their two rows of ivory, and with the accustomed “mornin’, missis,” presents you with a cup of delicious coffee. The morning’s costume arranged with due precision, you quit your chamber, and passing through the “hall,” where two or three black servant boys are spreading the snowy damask, and otherwise preparing for the plentiful breakfast, you gain the drawing-room. Stepping through its open windows or doors, you find yourself in a covered gallery, amid, perhaps, a group of children and their nurses, busily employed in various little infantile amusements. Upon the appearance of “the lady” these, however, are immediately postponed, as each miniature man or woman comes forward with native courtesy and outstretched hand, and offers the usual compliments.
A grateful breeze greets your cheek with its bland whisperings; and the early sunbeams, devoid of their intense meridian heat, glisten on the dew-besprinkled leaves, or dance in the ripples of the neighbouring ponds. If the property should be a sugar estate, and it is the season of harvest when you visit it, many a jocund laugh comes from the mill-door, where, under direction of the manager or overseer, the sails are unfurled and given to the wind; and with shout and creak, and cracking of whip, the sober oxen are dragging home cartloads of golden sugar-canes. Thus the time wears on;—at one moment watching the busy group at the mill-door, at another holding converse with the lovely skies, or following with dazzled glance, the rapid flittings of the honey-seeking fly-bird;[[48]] and anon poring over the pages of some spirit-stirring volume, or in occasional snatches of conversation with the hospitable hostess.