Though I had lived some time among the negroes of our Southern
States, my education was Northern, and I had met in the United
States black men whom I was proud to call friends. I was thus
prepared to admit any black man, possessing the attributes of true
manhood or any good qualities, to my friendship, even to a
brotherhood with myself; and to respect him for such, as much as
if he were of my own colour and race. Neither his colour, nor any
peculiarities of physiognomy should debar him with me from any
rights he could fairly claim as a man. "Have these men--these
black savages from pagan Africa," I asked myself, "the qualities
which make man loveable among his fellows? Can these men--these
barbarians--appreciate kindness or feel resentment like myself?"
was my mental question as I travelled through their quarters
and observed their actions. Need I say, that I was much comforted
in observing that they were as ready to be influenced by passions,
by loves and hates, as I was myself; that the keenest observation
failed to detect any great difference between their nature and my
own?

The negroes of the island probably number two-thirds of the entire
population. They compose the working-class, whether enslaved or
free. Those enslaved perform the work required on the plantations,
the estates, and gardens of the landed proprietors, or perform the
work of carriers, whether in the country or in the city. Outside
the city they may be seen carrying huge loads on their heads, as
happy as possible, not because they are kindly treated or that
their work is light, but because it is their nature to be gay and
light-hearted, because they, have conceived neither joys nor hopes
which may not be gratified at will, nor cherished any ambition
beyond their reach, and therefore have not been baffled in their