It is an unexpected development from the simple, woolly-headed, golden-hearted Bible-reading old darky that was held up as an example to European subscribers – the good old Uncle Tom who was to grow in the air of freedom into an educated, prudent and pious family man and citizen. But it is not too much to say that in general character the descendants of the Negro slaves in the British Empire are a thriftless and dissolute lot. There are always honourable exceptions in any general racial condemnation, and, heaven knows, the white people of the north have not made such a success of their own civilization that they can afford any extravagance of phrase. 'Was He Right to Free the Slaves?', The Daily Express (15 July 1933), quoted in The Essays, Articles and Reviews of Evelyn Waugh, ed.It depended on all those fallacies that are being abandoned today: the idea of a perfectible evolutionary man, of a responsible democratic voter, of the beneficial effect of mechanization, and, above all, on sentimental belief in the basic sweetness of human nature. None of the great movements of the nineteenth century is more typical of its age than that for the freeing of the slaves.1.9 The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold (1957).
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