These young folk returned to their various
native Colonies as lawyers and doctors. Many of them were also
wealthy planters. The daughters, of course, became in time the
mothers of the new generation of prominent inhabitants. Now, in
America all this was different. No "nigger," however alabaster fair,
was ever allowed the privileges of common citizenship, let alone the
right to hold property in others. If possessed by a weakness to pass
for white men, as very many of them could easily have contrived to
do, woe unto the poor impostors! They were hunted down from city to
city as few felons would be, and finally done to death--"serve them
right!" being the grim commentary regarding their fate for having
sought to usurp the ineffable privilege of whitemanship! All this,
Mr. Froude, was [121] the rule, the practice, in America, with regard
to persons of colour up to twenty-five years ago. Now, sir, what is
the phenomenon which strikes your vision in that mighty Republic to-
day, with regard to those self-same despised, discountenanced,
persecuted and harried descendants of Ham? We shall tell you of the
change that has taken place in their condition, and also some of the
reasons of that beneficent revolution.
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