In slavery
days, when all planters, black and white alike, were fused in a
common solidarity of interests, the skin-distinction which Mr. Froude
so strenuously advocates, and would fain risk so much to promote, did
not, so far as matrimony was concerned, exist in the degree that it
now does. Self-interest often dictated such unions, especially on
the part of in-coming Whites desiring to strengthen their position
and to increase their influence in [40] the land of their adoption by
means of advantageous Creole marriages. Love, too, sheer
uncalculating love, impelled not a few Whites to enter the hymeneal
state with the dusky captivators of their affections. When rich, the
white planter not seldom paid for such gratification of his laudable
impulse by accepting exclusion from "Society"--and when poor, he
incurred almost invariably his dismissal from employment. Of course,
in all cases of the sort the dispensers of such penalties were
actuated by high motives which, nevertheless, did not stand in the
way of their meeting, in the households of the persons thus obnoxious
to punishment, the same or even a lower class of Ethiopic damsels,
under the title of "housekeeper," on whom they lavished a very
plethora of caresses.
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