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.
Before continuing my sketches of colour, it is necessary to say something about _prejudice_. I mentioned in a former chapter, that possibly it would be better to bury such a subject in the gulf of oblivion; but upon mature consideration, I think it advisable to portray a few of its many instances as well in times past, as now.
A candid mind cannot but allow the illiberality, not to call it by a harsher name, of despising or underrating persons, because it has pleased their Creator to give them less fair skins. Yet that these feelings have existed from time immemorial to the present day is a well-known fact; and the West Indies in particular has been the place where Prejudice has erected her stronghold.
Although, as before remarked, the negroes were only considered as beasts of burden, their polished and urbane white masters had no objection to making them the partners of their illicit intercourse; and then, casting aside all natural affections, doomed their unoffending children, the issue of such unions, to a state of degradation.
In former years, the cruelty of such an act was not, perhaps, so keenly felt by them. Without any knowledge of religion or share of education, they grew up devoid of the finer feelings. The girls, as they approached womanhood, became themselves the mistresses of white men, or, in the West Indian term, _housekeepers_, while the males were content to drag on their existence much in the same way as a tolerated spaniel, which at one moment is noticed by a gracious nod, and allowed to lick the feet of its master, while at the next it is kicked out of the apartment, or spurned from the pathway.
As time wore on, and knowledge slowly progressed, the fathers of these poor children were led to send them to some place of instruction, where, besides acquiring the mere rudiments of reading and writing, they became grounded in plain, but solid learning. Having thus passed through the early stages of life, the males followed mercantile or agricultural pursuits; and as, perhaps, wealth poured in upon them, and they felt in their own bosoms their superiority to many of the white inhabitants, their eyes became more and more opened, and they more and more felt their degraded state.
They were debarred from holding any office of trust--were not allowed to act as jurors--and were prevented from serving in the militia, until the year 1793, when, as a great concession, or else because the "great folks" thought it for the public good, they were allowed to serve as pioneers, or drag the heavy artillery. The very churchyard was denied them, and their mortal remains were deposited by the roadside, where only the suicide or the murderer found a grave; while, should a white man be seen to take one of them, even the most respectable among the class, by the hand, in the way of social intimacy, that white man would be scouted from all ranks of society for his indecorous behaviour.
In 1798, Mr. Gilbert, (a relation to the Mr. Gilbert, the founder of Methodism in Antigua,) for many years the superintendent of his majesty's dockyard at English Harbour, was united in the bands of wedlock to a highly respectable and accomplished coloured lady of Antigua. The _iniquity!_ of this action, as they deemed it, was resented by his brother whites; himself and his lady were openly insulted; and some wag of the island, who, with the brains of a calf, fancied himself an Ulysses in wisdom, gave to the world an example of his would-be wit, by painting Mr. Gilbert's office-door half _black_ and half _white_.[46]
Not only were the coloured people refused interment in the churchyard, but so fearful were the whites of profanation, that the very _bell_ which tolled out _their demise_ was prohibited from being used to perform that service for those degraded ones through whose veins flowed the least drop of Afric's tarnished blood. Accordingly, a smaller bell (which still hangs in the belfry) was obtained from an estate in the island, called "Golden Grove," and which was regularly kept for the sole use of persons of colour, until within these last few years, when their rights as fellow-creatures have been allowed, and those mean and pitiful distinctions of caste, in great measure, done away with.
The first coloured person who was buried in the churchyard at St. John's was a merchant's clerk, (whose own blood was tainted, it is said, but who passed as a white man,) the favourite of his master. The merchant ordered the funeral to proceed to the churchyard, and upon the clergyman making his appearance, and no doubt expressing his surprise at such an unprecedented circumstance, he (the merchant) insisted upon his performing the burial service, and dared him to prevent the interment taking place. The rector thought it prudent to comply, and accordingly the coloured man reposed by the side of some white person, who (following the idea of Pollock in his "Course of Time") will, indeed, feel surprised at the last day, when each one takes again his own body, to find how long his ashes have been polluted by mingling in one common dust with him who perhaps was the offspring of one of his own despised negroes.[47]
How the coloured people bore all these accumulated indignities, which were heaped upon them for so many years, would astonish any sensitive mind; nor if they had joined the negroes in one common cause against their tyrants would it have produced much surprise. But they did bear it, and with magnanimity, until time and circumstance worked the cure, and delivered them from that thraldom of the mind more galling than any servitude of the body.
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.
At length the master of the domain, in his snow-white dress, and broad-brimmed hat, returns from his morning ride around the property, and the other guests assemble; and as the bell rings for nine o'clock,[49] a black boy, with napkin on his arm, announces "_breck-fus_ (breakfast) ready, ma'am," and a general movement takes place. The lady of the house, in her simple morning dress, presides at the head of her well-stocked table with a quiet gracefulness of manners, and amid a little racy talk and pleasant jest the meal proceeds. Tea and coffee, the light roll-like bread, roasted yams or potatoes, cutlets, ham, tongue, eggs, _caveached_ fish,[50] and potted meats, are among the lists of excellences found at a West Indian breakfast, while fresh butter, (which is reckoned a rarity, and is very troublesome to procure, being churned in a bottle, by continually shaking it, and which is served up without the addition of any salt,) and tempting fruits, fresh gathered from the tree, with the purple bloom upon them, form the lighter delicacies of the repast.
The meal over, and finger-glasses handed round, the company quit the table, and assemble in the drawing-room in order to pass the morning. The gentlemen leave, on various cares intent--some ride to town, to pursue their customary avocations, while the master inspects the labours of his people, settles some magistracy business, or visits some other estates under his management. The ladies in the meantime settle themselves to various little womanly employments. There is the piano, the paint-box, and the embroidery-frame; a selection of periodicals, new works, (most of the genteel people are subscribers to the "Library Society,") or a _porte-feuille_ of prints to look over; lively conversations of "home and home scenes," (all West Indians call England home,) promenades in the galleries or verandahs, or romps with the children to while away the hours.
About two o'clock the lunch-table is spread, when some of the gentlemen find time to be present, and more good things are partaken of. Pepper punch is brewed for "the lords of the creation;" Hock and Seltzer water introduced, and the delicious lemonade, made from the limes that moment gathered; and sparkling water from the peculiar porous jars, which keep it as cool as if drawn from the bottom of some gelid grot.
The flies are very troublesome in Antigua, particularly at those moments when meals are going forward, flying into the plates and dishes, and almost upon the very portions of food you are conveying to your mouth; indeed, in one instance, I observed one of these intruding little insects actually fly into a gentleman's mouth upon his opening it to utter some witty saying. To guard against these disagreeable associates in your repast, it is customary to have a black boy stand behind your chair, with a large green bough in his hand, with which he brushes backwards and forwards, in order to drive the intruders away. If the bough made use of be gathered from any aromatic shrub, it is particularly agreeable, as it throws a pleasing fragrance around, at the same time it raises a gentle breeze.
After lunch, your former amusements are resumed, until the sun loses a little of its intensity, when bonnets and shawls are called into requisition, and you stroll to the "boiling-house" to see the preparation of sugar-boiling going on, and taste the "sling," (the name given to the sugar when in its liquid state,) canter over the short turf on the back of some "Bucephalus," or wander through scenes of sylvan beauty, until the time arrives when it is necessary to repair to the house to dress for dinner.
Seven o'clock is the usual time appointed for "this momentous meal," a time better fitted for this warm climate than an earlier hour. The dinner generally consists of fish and soup, with the accompanying Champagne, followed by flesh and fowl, and concluded by pastry, game, (when in season,) butter, cheese, and shell-fish. Madeira and Sauterne are the wines generally used at dinner; and port, claret, cherry-brandy, and other liqueurs, with luscious Malmsey, are introduced with the dessert, which of course embraces the choicest of the West Indian fruits. Most of the higher families possess a good stock of silver and glass, and the table linen would please the most fastidious.
The gentlemen do not sit long at their wine, but join the ladies in the drawing-room, where tea and coffee soon make their appearance, and the evening is spent in music and conversation until the ornamental clock points to a late hour, when, family prayers over, you retire to your chamber, and under cover of a single sheet, repose in quietness, unless disturbed by an officious mosquito, which, _sans ceremonie_, has entered by a peep-hole in the "net" which surrounds the bed.
The houses of the coloured gentry are neatly and tastefully furnished. The hall contains its complement of dining-tables, side-boards, with their glittering burdens, butler's trays and stands, chairs, and sofas; wall-shades, hand-shades, suspension-lamps, and china tables--sometimes a book-case and writing-table, and a few prints in gilt frames. The drawing-room has its couches, lounging-chairs, and ottomans; its pianofortes, chiffoniers, and "what-nots;" loo and sofa tables; and all its little fancy embellishments of ornamental china, albums, and or-molu clocks. The floors are generally covered with oil-cloths of various patterns, which are found to answer better in this warm climate than carpeting; but the days when _mahogany floors_ were rubbed with _orange juice_ are long since passed, if they ever existed. I have never seen floors of more costly materials than "pitch pine," which certainly takes a good polish if rubbed, but which in that case are very disagreeable to walk over.
The marriages of the coloured people are more private than they used to be formerly--that is, among the genteel classes; the common people still drive about in borrowed gigs and phaetons, after the fashion already spoken of in the negro chapters. Some years ago, it was customary to marry by special licence, the ceremony being performed in the evening at their own dwellings. This practice has become extinct, and they are now married in their parish church. The favourite wedding-dress is blonde and white satin.
A great reformation has also taken place in their funerals. In former days, a wake used to be held by all classes on the night the demise took place; and on the following day, (the day of the funeral,) immense quanties of "dyer bread" and "biscuit cakes" (species of pastry) were made, enveloped in white paper, sealed with black wax, and handed round to the assembled guests, who often amounted to two or three hundred. Mulled wines, Port and Madeira sangaree, "mixed porter," (specified quantums of porter, water, sugar, and spice,) and different kinds of spirituous liquors, were also provided, sufficient to satisfy the thirst of Baron Munchausen's whale. If accounts be true, many of these funeral guests paid such particular attention to these several preparations from the vine and the hop, that they became greatly elated thereby, and not unfrequently left the _house of mourning_ in a state of inebriety.
Every article of furniture in the house was covered with white, and many other fatiguing ceremonies observed; but these have long ago fallen into disuse, only the chamber of death shewing its white drapery. The corpse, if a male, is attired in his usual dress, with the exception of coat and shoes; over which is placed what is termed a _scarf_, made of the finest white muslin or lawn, crimped round the edges, and fastened round the waist by a broad band. The ends of this scarf are brought in folds to the feet, and terminated with bows and rosettes of the same material. A cambric muslin shroud, also crimped in a deep border, is first placed in the coffin; which, before the last sad office of screwing down the lid takes place, is carefully covered over the corpse, and shuts out from the glance of friends, the features which they have so often gazed on with pleasure. If the deceased is a female, an elegant white dress is chosen, with a white satin band around the waist, white silk gloves and stockings, and a blonde cap ornamented with white satin.
If the deceased were unmarried, the coffin is covered with fine white broad cloth, and elaborately ornamented with silver lace, nails, plates, and "little angels," (as the negroes term them;) if married, it is covered with black cloth and black ornaments. Crape hat-bands and scarfs are now given to the bearers, and hat-bands to the intimate acquaintance only, for if the deceased is much respected, three or four hundred persons of all colours attend the funeral. In the arrangement of the procession, (which is always a walking one,) an eye is kept to prejudice. Formerly all coloured persons had coloured bearers, then came a change; and two white and four coloured men officiated in those characters; then it came to be three white and three coloured, and in a late instance, four white and two coloured persons formed the complement.[51]
The common coloured people still keep "a wake" upon the death of their friends; and on such occasions, while one part of the company are engaged in singing psalms, the others are filling the women's hats with water, putting pepper into wine, pulling off their shoes, and playing other vulgar practical jokes, most irreverent and disgusting at such a season.
The Antiguans have a peculiar mode of calling articles by particular names:--thus, potatoes are invariably called _Irish potatoes_, come they from what part of the world they may; the common Prussian-blue pea, and wheat-flour, are always termed _English_ peas, and _English_ flour, although such articles may come from France or America; ducks are English ducks; _negus_ is denominated _sangaree_, and spirits and water, _swizzle_.
This practice is illustrated by the following anecdote, related of a West Indian, who upon arriving for the first time at a London hotel, rang the bell for the waiter. Upon that necessary appendage to such an establishment making his appearance, the West Indian saluted him in the following Creole manner: "Boy! d'ye hear? give me a glass of _sangaree;_ and let me have for dinner English ducks and Irish potatoes."
The waiter, not used to this specification of articles, was astounded; he passed his fingers musingly through his lanky locks, looked up to the ceiling, and down to his Warrenized shoes, minutely inspected the movement of a fly upon the gilded mirror, in hopes, no doubt, of deriving information from it, smoothed the _un_rumpled table-cover, and then being still utterly unable to comprehend the order, exclaimed, in a very lamentable tone, "I ham werry sorry, sir, but we have not got no ducks or potatoes but the _common ones_, and has for the _other thing_ you _hordered_, we have none in the house just now."
There are several other peculiar modes of dialect observable among the Creoles. For instance: If an order is given to open or shut a window, it is, "Heave up that glass sash," or, "Haul down that glass sash;" when speaking of east and west, they invariably say _windward_ and _leeward;_ to throw a stone, is to _fire_ a stone; if a person is fortunate enough to procure a good situation, it is immediately said, "He has got a _capital berth;_" and their men-servants, of every age, are always termed _boys_.[52]
Soon after my arrival in this island, I happened to be present, one evening, when a gentleman was deploring an accident which had lately occurred. With my mind running upon "wounds and bruises," I inquired into the circumstances. "Why, that good-for-nothing _boy_ of mine," was the rejoinder, "went to the pond this morning, and on bis way back, he _knocked down my horse_." I was certainly surprised at such an herculean feat, and began to think of Maximin, the Roman emperor, who, with one blow of his fist, could knock out a horse's tooth, or break its leg with a kick; but my wonder was considerably increased upon the entrance of the _boy_ in question, for instead of his exhibiting any appearance of great strength, I found him to be, in reality, a decrepit old man. How this pilgrim of sixty summers could knock down an animal of such vast strength as a horse, I could not imagine--the mystery was more and more intricate--but at length, an elucidation was afforded, and I found out that instead of _the boy_ knocking down the animal, the animal had knocked down him; or, in other words, the horse had fallen down with the poor old man upon his back.
My sketches of colour are completed. True it is, there are many other little peculiarities which might be noticed; but for the present I will bid the coloured classes "farewell," and turning over the page, mention a few of the "traits and trials" of the white inhabitants.
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[46] This was not the only indignity offered. Mr. Gilbert was at that period the notary public, and when the news of his intended marriage got abroad, "the acting governor of Antigua wrote to the acting general governor of the Leeward Islands, resident at St. Christopher's, representing that _he_ (Mr. G.) had so basely degraded himself as to be unworthy of that office." The governor-general thought so too; so the public whipper was sent to demand his notarial commission, and some unknown patriot removed the painted board, placed over his office, bearing the words, "John Gilbert, Notary Public," and threw it into the sea. Mr. Gilbert also held a commission in the militia; but so horrified were the officers of the corps to which he belonged, that one of them, in the name of the rest, waited upon Mr. Gilbert with the pleasing intelligence, "that they were determined to have no intercourse with him, and would apply for a court-martial to try him, _for acting in a manner inconsistent with his rank and station, and the character of an officer, if he proceeded with this marriage._" For peace' sake, Mr. Gilbert resigned his commission. When, according to "the universal practice in these islands," he applied for his marriage licence, he was refused; the "bans were therefore published in the church." It is almost needless to remark, that had he made the lady the object of an illicit intercourse, his conduct would have been thought nothing but proper by the white inhabitants of Antigua in those days!
[47] This circumstance occurred at a period when the clergymen officiating in Antigua were not of that exemplary character which distinguishes the generality of the present divines.
[48] The humming bird, or colibri.
[49] A bell is rang, a conch shell blown, or an old copper struck with a piece of stick, to notify the hour when the negroes leave their work, for the purpose of getting their morning meal; and this is the usual hour for partaking of that repast among all classes.
[50] Fish stewed with vinegar, limes, mace, pepper, onions, &c., and eaten cold.
[51] How often trifling matters like these speak a mighty change in the "spirit of the times!"
[52] Although these _provincialisms_ happen to occur in this chapter, it is necessary to remark, that they are made use of by Creoles of every colour.