Froudacity | Page 6

prohibition whatsoever, on the ground of race or
colour, against the owning of slaves by any free person possessing the
necessary means, and desirous of doing so; (b) that, as a consequence
of this non-restriction, and from causes notoriously historical, numbers
of blacks, half-breeds, and other non-Europeans, besides such of them
as had become possessed of their "property" by inheritance, availed
themselves of this virtual license, and in course of time constituted a
very considerable proportion of the slave-holding section of those
communities; (c) that these [14] dusky plantation-owners enjoyed and
used in every possible sense the identical rights and privileges which
were enjoyed and used by their pure-blooded Caucasian
brother-slaveowners. The above statements are attested by written
documents, oral tradition, and, better still perhaps, by the living
presence in those islands of numerous lineal representatives of those
once opulent and flourishing non-European planter-families.
Common sense, here stepping in, must, from the above data, deduce
some such conclusions as the following. First that, on the hypothesis
that the slaves who were freed in 1838--full fifty years ago--were all on
an average fifteen years old, those vengeful ex- slaves of to-day will be
all men of sixty-five years of age; and, allowing for the delay in getting
the franchise, somewhat further advanced towards the human life-term
of threescore and ten years. Again, in order to organize and carry out
any scheme of legislative and social retaliation of the kind set forth in
the "Bow of Ulysses," there must be (which unquestionably there is not)
a considerable, well-educated, and very influential number surviving of
those who had actually [15] been in bondage. Moreover, the vengeance
of these people (also assuming the foregoing nonexistent condition)
would have, in case of opportunity, to wreak itself far more largely and
vigorously upon members of their own race than upon Whites, seeing
that the increase of the Blacks, as correctly represented in the "Bow of
Ulysses," is just as rapid as the diminution of the White population.
And therefore, Mr. Froude's "Danger-to-the-Whites" cry in support of

his anti-reform manifesto would not appear, after all, to be quite so
justifiable as he possibly thinks.
Feeling keenly that something in the shape of the foregoing programme
might be successfully worked up for a public defence of the maligned
people, I disregarded the bodily and mental obstacles that have beset
and clouded my career during the last twelve years, and cheerfully
undertook the task, stimulated thereto by what I thought weighty
considerations. I saw that no representative of Her Majesty's Ethiopic
West Indian subjects cared to come forward to perform this work in the
more permanent shape that I felt to be not only desirable but essential
for our self-vindication. [16] I also realized the fact that the "Bow of
Ulysses" was not likely to have the same ephemeral existence and
effect as the newspaper and other periodical discussions of its contents,
which had poured from the press in Great Britain, the United States,
and very notably, of course, in all the English Colonies of the Western
Hemisphere. In the West Indian papers the best writers of our race had
written masterly refutations, but it was clear how difficult the task
would be in future to procure and refer to them whenever occasion
should require. Such productions, however, fully satisfied those
qualified men of our people, because they were legitimately convinced
(even as I myself am convinced) that the political destinies of the
people of colour could not run one tittle of risk from anything that it
pleased Mr. Froude to write or say on the subject. But, meditating
further on the question, the reflection forced itself upon me that,
beyond the mere political personages in the circle more directly
addressed by Mr. Froude's volume, there were individuals whose
influence or possible sympathy we could not afford to disregard, or to
esteem lightly. So I deemed it right and a patriotic duty to attempt [17]
the enterprise myself, in obedience to the above stated motives.
At this point I must pause to express on behalf of the entire coloured
population of the West Indies our most heartfelt acknowledgments to
Mr. C. Salmon for the luminous and effective vindication of us, in his
volume on "West Indian Confederation," against Mr. Froude's libels.
The service thus rendered by Mr. Salmon possesses a double
significance and value in my estimation. In the first place, as being the
work of a European of high position, quite independent of us (who
testifies concerning Negroes, not through having gazed at them from

balconies, decks of steamers, or the seats of moving carriages, but from
actual and long personal intercourse with them, which the internal
evidence of his book plainly proves to have been as sympathetic as it
was familiar), and, secondly, as the work of an individual