Anthony Trollope - The West Indies and the Spanish Main (Chap. 5) Jamaica - Coloured Men lyrics

If in speaking of the negroes I have been in danger of offending my friends at home, I shall be certain in speaking of the coloured men to offend my friends in Jamaica. On this subject, though I have sympathy with them, I have no agreement. They look on themselves as the ascendant race. I look upon those of colour as being so, or at any rate as about to become so. In speaking of my friends in Jamaica, it is not unnatural that I should allude to the pure-blooded Europeans, or European Creoles — to those in whose veins there is no admixture of African blood. " Similia similibus." A man from choice will live with those who are of his own habits and his own way of thinking. But as regards Jamaica, I believe that the light of their star is waning, that their ascendency is over — in short, that their work, if not done, is on the decline. Ascendency is a disagreeable word to apply to any two different races whose fate it may be to live together in the same land. It has been felt to be so in Ireland, when used either with reference to the Saxon Protestant or Celtic Roman Catholic ; and it is so with reference to those of various shades of colour in Jamaica. But nevertheless it is the true word. When two rivers come together, the waters of which do not mix, the one stream will be the stronger — will over- power the other — will become ascendant And so it is with people and nations. It may not be pretty-spoken to talk about ascendency; but sometimes pretty speaking will not answer a man's purpose. It is almost unnecessary to explain that by coloured men I mean those who are of a mixed race — of a breed mixed, be it in what proportion it may, between the white European and the black African. Speaking of Jamaica, I might almost say between the Anglo-Saxon and the African ; for there remains, I take it, but a small tinge of Spanish blood. Of the old Indian blood there is, I imagine, hardly a vestige. Both the white men and the black dislike their coloured neighbours. It is useless to deny iiiat as a rule such is the case. The white men now, at this very day, dislike them more in Jamaica than they do in other parts of the West Indies, because they are constantly driven to meet them, and are more afraid of them. In Jamaica one does come in contact with coloured men. They are to be met at the Governor's table ; they sit in the House of Assembly ; they cannot be refused admittance to state parties, or even to large a**emblies ; they have forced themselves forward, and must be recognized as being in the van. Individuals decry them — will not have them within their doors — affect to despise them. But in effect the coloured men of Jamaica cannot be despised much longer. It will be said that we have been wrong if we have ever despised these coloured people, or indeed, if we have ever despised the negroes, or any other race. I can hardly think that anything so natural can be very wrong. Those who are educated and civilized and[ powerful will always, in one sense, despise those who are not ; and the most educated and civilized and most powerful will despise those who are less so. Euphuists may proclaim against such a doctrine ; but experience, I think, teaches us that it is true. If the coloured people in the West Indies can overtop contempt, it is because they are acquiring education, civilization, and power. In Jamaica they are, I hope, in a way to do this. ' My theory — for I acknowledge to a theory — is this : that Providence has sent white men and black men to these regions in order that from them may spring a race fitted by intellect for civilization ; and fitted also by physical organization for tropical labour. The negro in his primitive state is not, I think, fitted for the former; and the European white Creole is certainly not fitted for the latter. To all such rules there are of course exceptions. In Porto Rico, for instance, one of the two remaining Spanish colonies in the West Indies, the Peons, or free peasant labourers, are of mixed Spanish and Indian blood, without, I believe, any negro element. And there are occasional negroes whose mental condition would certainly tend to disprove the former of the two foregoing propositions, were it not that in such matters exceptional cases prove and disprove nothing. English- men as a rule are stouter than Frenchmen. Were a French Falstaff and an English Slender brought into a room together, the above position would be not a whit disproved. It is probable also that the future race who shall inhabit these islands may have other elements than the two already named. There will soon be here — in the teeth of our friends of the Anti-Slavery Society — thousands from China and Hindostan. The Chinese and the Coolies — immigrants from India are always called Coolies — greatly excel the negro in intelligence, and partake, though in a limited degree, of the negro's physical abilities in a hot climate. And thus the blood of Asia will be mixed with that of Africa; and the necessary compound will, by God's infinite wisdom and power, be formed for these latitudes, as it has been formed for the colder regions in which the Anglo-Saxon preserves his energy, and works. I know it will be said that there have been no signs of a mixture of breed between the negro and the Coolie, and the negro and the Chinese. The instances hitherto are, I am aware, but rare ; but then the immigration of these cla**es is as yet but recent; and custom is necessary, and a language commonly under- stood, and habits, which the similitude of position will also make common, before such races will amalgamate. That they will amalgamate if brought together, all his- tory teaches us. The Anglo-Saxon and the negro have done so, and in two hundred years have produced a population which is said to amount to a fifth of that of the whole island of Jamaica, and which probably amounts to much more. Two hundred years with us is a long time ; but it is not so in the world's history. From 1660 to 1860 a.d. is a vast lapse of years; but how little is the lapse from the year 1660 to the year 1860, dating from the creation of the world ; or rather, how small appears such lapse to us... In how many pages is its history written ? and yet God's races were spreading themselves over the earth then as now.