In continuing my “shadows” of negro character, methinks I hear my good readers cry out, “Why, here is nothing but paradoxes. In a former chapter the negroes were all and everything, but now it appears the tables are turning, and, Proteus-like, assume another shape.” Stop a little, my kind friends; a word or two in my own defence, if you please. What may appear paradoxical at first, upon further research may not prove so; the sky we admire for its beautiful cerulean tint is not in _reality_ blue. I have before remarked, that I should have to give the “shadows,” as well as the “lights” of negro character. I am sorry to be obliged to do so, for I wish them well; but as, in describing the early days of slavery, I have not screened the master, so must I now give the real outlines of the negro. I ever did, and ever shall detest the name of slavery, and glad do I feel that it is done away with, at least in British colonies, if only for the honour of my dear native isle; and while I have to write of negro vices, I again repeat, that they do not so much result from the natural bias of their character, as from the effects of the bonds they have so long worn, which, degrading them in their own eyes, have conspired to render them what they are. Time can only correct their errors: let us, then, not despair, but hope for the best. Surely we ought to see some amendment in the rising generation, and we shall do so, I feel assured, if their old relations do not poison their minds, by telling them, because they are taught to read and write, it will be a degradation for them to work in a cane-field. In the latter part of the preceding chapter, an account was given of their various superstitions; the next strong trait in their character is suspicion. They can seldom be brought to think you have an eye to their interest in any new arrangement you may make with them in their domestic concerns. If you address them with kindness, they suspect you have some motive for so doing, prejudicial to their welfare. Should you inquire after their living, the quantity of live-stock they keep, or any other little domestic comfort, or, indeed, ask them where they live, or who they work for, the same thoughts possess their mind.