He May,
Also, If He Pleases, Compel His Master To Sell Him A Certain Portion Of
His Time, Which He May Employ To Earn The Means Of Purchasing His Entire
Freedom.
It is owing to this, I suppose, that the number of free blacks is so large
in the island,
And it is manifest that if the slave-trade could be
checked, and these laws remain unaltered, the negroes would gradually
emancipate themselves - all at least who would be worth keeping as
servants. The population of Cuba is now about a million and a quarter,
rather more than half of whom are colored persons, and one out of every
four of the colored population is free. The mulattoes emancipate
themselves as a matter of course, and some of them become rich by the
occupations they follow. The prejudice of color is by no means so strong
here as in the United States. Five or six years since the negroes were
shouting and betting in the cockpits with the whites; but since the
mulatto insurrection, as it is called, in 1843, the law forbids their
presence at such amusements. I am told there is little difficulty in
smuggling people of mixed blood, by the help of legal forms, into the
white race, and if they are rich, into good society, provided their hair
is not frizzled.
You hear something said now and then in the United States concerning the
annexation of Cuba to our confederacy; you may be curious, perhaps, to
know what they say of it here. A European who had long resided in the
island, gave me this account:
"The Creoles, no doubt, would be very glad to see Cuba annexed to the
United States, and many of them ardently desire it. It would relieve them
from many great burdens they now bear, open their commerce to the world,
rid them of a tyrannical government, and allow them to manage their own
affairs in their own way. But Spain derives from the possession of Cuba
advantages too great to be relinquished. She extracts from Cuba a revenue
of twelve millions of dollars; her government sends its needy nobility,
and all for whom it would provide, to fill lucrative offices in Cuba - the
priests, the military officers, the civil authorities, every man who fills
a judicial post or holds a clerkship is from old Spain. The Spanish
government dares not give up Cuba if it were inclined.
"Nor will the people of Cuba make any effort to emancipate themselves by
taking up arms. The struggle with the power of Spain would be bloody and
uncertain, even if the white population were united, but the mutual
distrust with which the planters and the peasantry regard each other,
would make the issue of such an enterprise still more doubtful. At present
it would not be safe for a Cuba planter to speak publicly of annexation to
the United States. He would run the risk of being imprisoned or exiled."
Of course, if Cuba were to be annexed to the United States, the slave
trade with Africa would cease to be carried on as now, though its perfect
suppression might be found difficult. Negroes would be imported in large
numbers from the United States, and planters would emigrate with them.
Institutions of education would be introduced, commerce and religion would
both be made free, and the character of the islanders would be elevated by
the responsibilities which a free government would throw upon them. The
planters, however, would doubtless adopt regulations insuring the
perpetuity of slavery; they would unquestionably, as soon as they were
allowed to frame ordinances for the island, take away the facilities which
the present laws give the slave for effecting his own emancipation.
Letter L.
English Exhibitions of Works of Art.
London, _July_ 7, 1849.
I have just been to visit a gallery of drawings in water-colors, now open
for exhibition. The English may be almost said to have created this branch
of art. Till within a few years, delineations in water-colors, on drawing
paper, have been so feeble and meagre as to be held in little esteem, but
the English artists have shown that as much, though in a somewhat
different way, may be done on drawing-paper as on canvas; that as high a
degree of expression may be reached, as much strength given to the
coloring, and as much boldness to the lights and shadows. In the
collection of which I speak, are about four hundred drawings not before
exhibited. Those which appeared to me the most remarkable, though not in
the highest department of art, were still-life pieces by Hunt. It seems to
me impossible to carry pictorial illusion to a higher pitch than he has
attained. A sprig of hawthorn flowers, freshly plucked, lies before you,
and you are half-tempted to take it up and inhale its fragrance; those
speckled eggs in the bird's nest, you are sure you might, if you pleased,
take into your hand; that tuft of ivy leaves and buds is so complete an
optical deception, that you can hardly believe that it has not been
attached by some process to the paper on which you see it. A servant girl,
in a calico gown, with a broom, by the same artist, and a young woman
standing at a window, at which the light is streaming in, are as fine in
their way, and as perfect imitations of every-day nature, as you see in
the works of the best Flemish painters.
It is to landscape, however, that the artists in water-colors have
principally devoted their attention. There are several very fine ones in
the collection by Copley Fielding, the foregrounds drawn with much
strength, the distant objects softly blending with the atmosphere as in
nature, and a surprising depth and transparency given to the sky. Alfred
Fripp and George Fripp have also produced some very fine
landscapes - mills, waters in foam or sleeping in pellucid pools, and the
darkness of the tempest in contrast with gleams of sunshine.
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