Where white men and black men are together, the white will order and the black will obey, with an obedience4 more or less implicit5 according to the terms on which they stand. When those terms are slavery, the white men order with austerity, and the black obey with alacrity6. But such terms have been found to be prejudicial to both. Each is brutalized by the contact. The black man becomes brutal7 and passive as a beast of burden; the white man becomes brutal and ferocious8 as a beast of prey9.
But there are various other terms on which they may stand as servants and masters. There are those well-understood terms which regulate employment in England and elsewhere, under which the poor man's time is his money, and the rich man's capital his certain means of obtaining labour. As far as we can see, these terms, if properly carried out, are the best which human wisdom can devise for the employment and maintenance of mankind. Here in England they are not always properly carried out. At an occasional spot or two things will run rusty10 for a while. There are strikes, and there are occasional gluts11 of labour, very distressing12 to the poor man; and occasional gluts of the thing laboured, very embarrassing to the rich man. But on the whole, seeing that after all the arrangement is only human, here in England it does work pretty well. We intended, no doubt, when we emancipated our slaves in Jamaica, that the affair should work in the same way there.
But the terms there at present are as far removed from the English system as they are from the Cuban, and are almost as abhorrent13 to justice as slavery itself—as abhorrent to justice, though certainly not so abhorrent to mercy and humanity.
What would a farmer say in England if his ploughman declined to work, and protested that he preferred going to his master's granary and feeding himself and his children on his master's corn? "Measter, noa; I beez a-tired thick day, and dunna mind to do no wark!" Then the poorhouse, my friend, the poorhouse! And hardly that; starvation first, and nakedness, and all manner of misery14. In point of fact, our friend the ploughman must go and work, even though his o'erlaboured bones be tired, as no doubt they often are. He knows it, and does it, and in his way is not discontented. And is not this God's ordinance15?
His ordinance in England and elsewhere, but not so, apparently16, in Jamaica. There we had a devil's ordinance in those days of slavery; and having rid ourselves of that, we have still a devil's ordinance of another sort. It is not perhaps very easy for men to change devil's work into heavenly work at once. The ordinance that at present we have existing there is that far niente one of lying in the sun and eating yams—"of eating, not your own yams, you lazy, do-nothing, thieving darkee; but my yams; mine, who am being ruined, root and branch, stock and barrel, house and homestead, wife and bairns, because you won't come and work for me when I offer you due wages; you thieving, do-nothing, lazy nigger."
"Hush17!" will say my angry philanthropist. "For the sake of humanity, hush! Will coarse abuse and the calling of names avail anything? Is he not a man and a brother?" No, my angry philanthropist; while he will not work and will only steal, he is neither the one nor the other, in my estimation. As for his being a brother, that we may say is—fudge; and I will call no professional idler a man.
But the abuse above given is not intended to be looked on as coming out of my own mouth, and I am not, therefore, to be held responsible for the wording of it. It is inserted there—with small inverted18 commas, as you see—to show the language with which our angry white friends in Jamaica speak of the extraordinary condition in which they have found themselves placed.
Slowly—with delay that has been awfully19 ruinous—they now bethink themselves of immigration—immigration from the coast of Africa, immigration from China, Coolie immigrants from Hindostan. When Trinidad and Guiana have helped themselves, then Jamaica bestirs itself. And what then? Then the negroes bestir themselves. "For heaven's sake let us be looked to! Are we not to be protected from competition? If labourers be brought here, will not these white people again cultivate their grounds? Shall we not be driven from our squatting20 patches? Shall we not starve; or, almost worse than that, shall we not again fall under Adam's curse? Shall we not again be slaves, in reality, if not in name? Shall we not have to work?"
The negro's idea of emancipation21 was and is emancipation not from slavery but from work. To lie in the sun and eat breadfruit and yams is his idea of being free. Such freedom as that has not been intended for man in this world; and I say that Jamaica, as it now exists, is still under a devil's ordinance.
One cannot wonder that the white man here should be vituperative22 in his wrath23. First came emancipation. He bore that with manful courage; for it must be remembered that even in that he had much to bear. The price he got for his slave was nothing as compared with that slave's actual value. And slavery to him was not repugnant as it is to you and me. One's trade is never repugnant to one's feelings. But so much he did bear with manly24 courage. He could no longer make slave-grown sugar, but he would not at any rate be compelled to compete with those who could. The protective duties would save him there.
Then free trade became the fashion, and protective duties on sugar were abolished. I beg it may not be thought that I am an advocate for such protection. The West Indians were, I think, thrown over in a scurvy25 manner, because they were thrown over by their professed26 friends. But that was, we all know, the way with Sir Robert Peel. Well, free trade in sugar became the law of the land, and then the Jamaica planter found the burden too heavy for his back. The money which had flown in so freely came in such small driblets that he could make no improvement. Portions of his estate went out of cultivation27, and then the negro who should have tilled the remainder squatted28 on it, and said, "No, massa, me no workee to-day."
And now, to complete the business, now that Jamaica is at length looking in earnest for immigration—for it has long been looking for immigration with listless dis-earnest—the planter is told that the labour of the black man must be protected. If he be vituperative, who can wonder at it? To speak the truth, he is somewhat vituperative.
The white planter of Jamaica is sore and vituperative and unconvinced. He feels that he has been ill used, and forced to go to the wall; and that now he is there, he is meanly spoken of, as though he were a bore and a nuisance—as one of whom the Colonial Office would gladly rid itself if it knew how. In his heart of hearts there dwells a feeling that after all slavery was not so vile2 an institution—that that devil as well as some others has been painted too black. In those old days the work was done, the sugar was made, the workmen were comfortably housed and fed, and perhaps on his father's estate were kindly30 treated. At any rate, such is his present memory. The money came in, things went on pleasantly, and he cannot remember that anybody was unhappy. But now—! Can it be wondered at that in his heart of hearts he should still have a sort of yearning31 after slavery?
In one sense, at any rate, he has been ill used. The turn in the wheel of Fortune has gone against him, as it went against the hand-loom weavers32 when machinery33 became the fashion. Circumstances rather than his own fault have brought him low. Well-disciplined energy in all the periods of his adversity might perhaps have saved him, as it has saved others; but there has been more against him than against others. As regards him himself, the old-fashioned Jamaica planter, the pure blooded white owner of the soil, I think that his day in Jamaica is done. The glory, I fear, has departed from his house. The hand-loom weavers have been swept into infinite space, and their children now poke29 the engine fires, or piece threads standing34 in a factory. The children of the old Jamaica planter must also push their fortunes elsewhere.
It is a thousand pities, for he was, I may still say is, the prince of planters—the true aristocrat35 of the West Indies. He is essentially36 different as a man from the somewhat purse-proud Barbadian, whose estate of two hundred acres has perhaps changed hands half a dozen times in the last fifty years, or the thoroughly37 mercantile sugar manufacturer of Guiana. He has so many of the characteristics of an English country gentleman that he does not strike an Englishman as a strange being. He has his pedigree, and his family house, and his domain38 around him. He shoots and fishes, and some few years since, in the good days, he even kept a pack of hounds. He is in the commission of the peace, and as such has much to do. A planter in Demerara may also be a magistrate,—probably is so; but the fact does not come forward as a prominent part of his life's history.
In Jamaica too there is scope for a country gentleman. They have their counties and their parishes; in Barbados they have nothing but their sugar estates. They have county society, local balls, and local race-meetings. They have local politics, local quarrels, and strong old-fashioned local friendships. In all these things one feels oneself to be much nearer to England in Jamaica than in any other of the West Indian islands.
All this is beyond measure pleasant, and it is a thousand pities that it should not last. I fear, however, that it will not last—that, indeed, it is not now lasting39. That dear lady's unwillingness41 to obey her lord's behests, when he asked her to call on her brown neighbour, nay42, the very fact of that lord's request, both go to prove that this is so. The lady felt that her neighbour was cutting the very ground from under her feet. The lord knew "that old times were changed, old manners gone." The game was almost up when he found himself compelled to make such a request.
At present, when the old planter sits on the magisterial43 bench, a coloured man sits beside him; one probably on each side of him. At road sessions he cannot carry out his little project because the coloured men out-vote him. There is a vacancy44 for his parish in the House of Assembly. The old planter scorns the House of Assembly, and will have nothing to do with it. A coloured man is therefore chosen, and votes away the white man's taxes; and then things worse and worse arise. Not only coloured men get into office, but black men also. What is our old aristocratic planter to do with a negro churchwarden on one side, and a negro coroner on another? "Fancy what our state is," a young planter said to me; "I dare not die, for fear I should be sat upon by a black man!"
I know that it will be thought by many, and probably said by some, that these are distinctions to which we ought not to allude45. But without alluding46 to them in one's own mind it is impossible to understand the state of the country; and without alluding to them in speech it is impossible to explain the state of the country. The fact is, that in Jamaica, at the present day, the coloured people do stand on strong ground, and that they do not so stand with the goodwill47 of the old aristocracy of the country. They have forced their way up, and now loudly protest that they intend to keep it. I think that they will keep it, and that on the whole it will be well for us Anglo-Saxons to have created a race capable of living and working in the climate without inconvenience.
It is singular, however, how little all this is understood in England. There it is conceived that white men and coloured men, white ladies and coloured ladies, meet together and amalgamate48 without any difference. The Duchess of This and Lord That are very happy to have at their tables some intelligent dark gentleman, or even a well-dressed negro, though he may not perhaps be very intelligent. There is some little excitement in it, some change from the common; and perhaps also an easy opportunity of practising on a small scale those philanthropic views which they preach with so much eloquence49. When one hobnobs over a glass of champagne50 with a dark gentleman, he is in some sort a man and a brother. But the duchess and the lord think that because the dark gentleman is to their taste, he must necessarily be as much to the taste of the neighbours among whom he has been born and bred; of those who have been accustomed to see him from his childhood.
There never was a greater mistake. A coloured man may be a fine prophet in London; but he will be no prophet in Jamaica, which is his own country; no prophet at any rate among his white neighbours.
I knew a case in which a very intelligent—nay, I believe, a highly-educated young coloured gentleman, was sent out by certain excellent philanthropic big-wigs to fill an official situation in Jamaica. He was a stranger to Jamaica, never having been there before. Now, when he was so sent out, the home big-wigs alluded51 to, intimated to certain other big-wigs in Jamaica that their dark protégé would be a great acquisition to the society of the place. I mention this to show the ignorance of those London big-wigs, not as to the capability52 of the young gentleman, which probably was not over-rated, but as to the manners and life of the place. I imagine that the gentleman has hardly once found himself in that society which it was supposed he would adorn53. The time, however, will probably come when he and others of the same class will have sufficient society of their own.
I have said elsewhere that the coloured people in Jamaica have made their way into society; and in what I now say I may seem to contradict myself. Into what may perhaps be termed public society they have made their way. Those who have seen the details of colonial life will know that there is a public society to which people are admitted or not admitted, according to their acknowledged rights. Governor's parties, public balls, and certain meetings which are semi-official and semi-social, are of this nature. A Governor in Jamaica would, I imagine, not conceive himself to have the power of excluding coloured people from his table, even if he wished it. But in Barbados I doubt whether a Governor could, if he wished it, do the reverse.
So far coloured people in Jamaica have made their footing good; and they are gradually advancing beyond this. But not the less as a rule are they disliked by the old white aristocracy of the country; in a strong degree by the planters themselves, but in a much stronger by the planters' wives.
So much for my theory as to the races of men in Jamaica, and as to the social condition of the white and coloured people with reference to each other. Now I would say a word or two respecting the white man as he himself is, without reference either to his neighbour or to his prospects54.
A better fellow cannot be found anywhere than a gentleman of Jamaica, or one with whom it is easier to live on pleasant terms. He is generally hospitable55, affable, and generous; easy to know, and pleasant when known; not given perhaps to much deep erudition, but capable of talking with ease on most subjects of conversation; fond of society, and of pleasure, if you choose to call it so; but not generally addicted56 to low pleasures. He is often witty57, and has a sharp side to his tongue if occasion be given him to use it. He is not generally, I think, a hard-working man. Had he been so, the country perhaps would not have been in its present condition. But he is bright and clever, and in spite of all that he has gone through, he is at all times good-humoured.
No men are fonder of the country to which they belong, or prouder of the name of Great Britain than these Jamaicans. It has been our policy—and, as regards our larger colonies, the policy I have no doubt has been beneficial—to leave our dependencies very much to themselves; to interfere58 in the way of governing as little as might be; and to withdraw as much as possible from any participation59 in their internal concerns. This policy is anything but popular with the white aristocracy of Jamaica. They would fain, if it were possible, dispense60 altogether with their legislature, and be governed altogether from home. In spite of what they have suffered, they are still willing to trust the statesmen of England, but are most unwilling40 to trust the statesmen of Jamaica.
Nothing is more peculiar61 than the way in which the word "home" is used in Jamaica, and indeed all through the West Indies, With the white people, it always signifies England, even though the person using the word has never been there. I could never trace the use of the word in Jamaica as applied62 by white men or white women to the home in which they lived, not even though that home had been the dwelling63 of their fathers as well as of themselves. The word "home" with them is sacred, and means something holier than a habitation in the tropics. It refers always to the old country.
In this respect, as in so many others, an Englishman differs greatly from a Frenchman. Though our English, as a rule, are much more given to colonize64 than they are; though we spread ourselves over the face of the globe, while they have established comparatively but few settlements in the outer world; nevertheless, when we leave our country, we almost always do so with some idea, be it ever so vague, that we shall return to it again, and again make it our home. But the Frenchman divests65 himself of any such idea. He also loves France, or at any rate loves Paris; but his object is to carry his Paris with him; to make a Paris for himself, whether it be in a sugar island among the Antilles, or in a trading town upon the Levant.
And in some respects the Frenchman is the wiser man. He never looks behind him with regret. He does his best to make his new house comfortable. The spot on which he fixes is his home, and so he calls it, and so regards it. But with an Englishman in the West Indies—even with an English Creole—England is always his home.
If the people in Jamaica have any prejudice, it is on the subject of heat. I suppose they have a general idea that their island is hotter than England; but they never reduce this to an individual idea respecting their own habitation.
"Come and dine with me," a man says to you; "I can give you a cool bed." The invitation at first sounded strange to me, but I soon got used to it; I soon even liked it, though I found too often that the promise was not kept. How could it be kept while the quicksilver was standing at eighty-five in the shade?
And each man boasts that his house is ten degrees cooler than that of his neighbours; and each man, if you contest the point, has a reason to prove why it must be so.
But a stranger, at any rate round Kingston, is apt to put the matter in a different light. One place may be hotter than another, but cool is a word which he never uses. On the whole, I think that the heat of Kingston, Jamaica, is more oppressive than that of any other place among the British West Indies. When one gets down to the Spanish coast, then, indeed, one can look back even to Kingston with regret.
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1
emancipated
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| adj.被解放的，不受约束的v.解放某人（尤指摆脱政治、法律或社会的束缚）( emancipate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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vile
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| adj.卑鄙的，可耻的，邪恶的；坏透的 | |
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analyze
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| vt.分析，解析 (=analyse) | |
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obedience
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| n.服从，顺从 | |
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implicit
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| a.暗示的，含蓄的，不明晰的，绝对的 | |
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alacrity
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| n.敏捷，轻快，乐意 | |
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brutal
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| adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的 | |
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ferocious
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| adj.凶猛的，残暴的，极度的，十分强烈的 | |
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prey
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| n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨 | |
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rusty
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| adj.生锈的；锈色的；荒废了的 | |
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gluts
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| n.供过于求( glut的名词复数 )；过量供应；放纵；尽量v.吃得过多( glut的第三人称单数 )；（对胃口、欲望等）纵情满足；使厌腻；塞满 | |
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distressing
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| a.使人痛苦的 | |
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abhorrent
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| adj.可恶的，可恨的，讨厌的 | |
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misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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ordinance
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| n.法令；条令；条例 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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hush
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| int.嘘，别出声；n.沉默，静寂；v.使安静 | |
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inverted
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| adj.反向的，倒转的v.使倒置，使反转( invert的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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awfully
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| adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地 | |
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squatting
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| v.像动物一样蹲下( squat的现在分词 )；非法擅自占用（土地或房屋）；为获得其所有权；而占用某片公共用地。 | |
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emancipation
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| n.（从束缚、支配下）解放 | |
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vituperative
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| adj.谩骂的；斥责的 | |
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wrath
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| n.愤怒，愤慨，暴怒 | |
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manly
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| adj.有男子气概的；adv.男子般地，果断地 | |
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scurvy
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| adj.下流的，卑鄙的，无礼的；n.坏血病 | |
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professed
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| 公开声称的，伪称的，已立誓信教的 | |
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cultivation
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| n.耕作，培养，栽培（法），养成 | |
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squatted
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| v.像动物一样蹲下( squat的过去式和过去分词 )；非法擅自占用（土地或房屋）；为获得其所有权；而占用某片公共用地。 | |
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29
poke
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| n.刺，戳，袋；vt.拨开，刺，戳；vi.戳，刺，捅，搜索，伸出，行动散慢 | |
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kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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yearning
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| a.渴望的；向往的；怀念的 | |
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weavers
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| 织工，编织者( weaver的名词复数 ) | |
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machinery
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| n.(总称)机械，机器；机构 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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aristocrat
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| n.贵族，有贵族气派的人，上层人物 | |
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essentially
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| adv.本质上，实质上，基本上 | |
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thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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domain
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| n.(活动等)领域，范围；领地，势力范围 | |
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lasting
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| adj.永久的，永恒的；vbl.持续，维持 | |
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40
unwilling
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| adj.不情愿的 | |
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unwillingness
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| n. 不愿意，不情愿 | |
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42
nay
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| adv.不；n.反对票，投反对票者 | |
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43
magisterial
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| adj.威风的，有权威的；adv.威严地 | |
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44
vacancy
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| n.（旅馆的）空位，空房，（职务的）空缺 | |
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45
allude
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| v.提及，暗指 | |
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46
alluding
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| 提及，暗指( allude的现在分词 ) | |
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47
goodwill
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| n.善意，亲善，信誉，声誉 | |
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48
amalgamate
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| v.(指业务等)合并，混合 | |
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49
eloquence
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| n.雄辩；口才，修辞 | |
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50
champagne
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| n.香槟酒；微黄色 | |
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51
alluded
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| 提及，暗指( allude的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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52
capability
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| n.能力；才能；(pl)可发展的能力或特性等 | |
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53
adorn
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| vt.使美化，装饰 | |
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54
prospects
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| n.希望，前途(恒为复数) | |
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55
hospitable
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| adj.好客的；宽容的；有利的，适宜的 | |
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56
addicted
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| adj.沉溺于....的，对...上瘾的 | |
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witty
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| adj.机智的，风趣的 | |
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interfere
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| v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰 | |
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59
participation
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| n.参与，参加，分享 | |
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60
dispense
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| vt.分配，分发；配(药)，发(药)；实施 | |
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61
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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62
applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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63
dwelling
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| n.住宅，住所，寓所 | |
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64
colonize
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| v.建立殖民地，拓殖；定居，居于 | |
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65
divests
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| v.剥夺( divest的第三人称单数 )；脱去（衣服）；2。从…取去…；1。（给某人）脱衣服 | |
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