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NEGROES IN BRITAIN

INTERNATIONAL LIBRARY OF SOCIOLOGY
AND SOCIAL RECONSTRUCTION

Editor : Dr. Karl Mannheim

Advisory Board: HAROLD BUTLER, C.B., Minister in Charge of British Information Service at H.M.
Embassy, Washington, D.C.; SIR ALEXANDER CARR-SAUNDERS, Director of the London School of
Economics; SIR FRED CLARKE, Chairman, Central Advisory Council for Education; LORD LINDSAY OF
BIRKER, C.B.E., Master of Balliol College, Oxford.

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

A STUDT OF RACIAL RELATIONS
IN ENGLISH SOCIETY

by

K. L. LITTLE, M.A. (Cantab.), Ph.D. (London)

Assistant Lecturer in Anthropology ^

London School of Economics and Political Science

LONDON

KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO., LTD.
BROADWAY HOUSE; 68-74 CARTER LANE, E.C.4.

First published 1947

THIS BOOK IS PRODUCED IN COMPLETE
CONFORMITY WITH THE AUTHORIZED
ECONOMY STANDARDS

PRINTED IN GREAT
BY HUNT, BARNARD AND CO., I.TD,,

BRITAIN

LONDON and AYLESBURY

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAGE

Preface ......... xi

INTRODUCTION

Chapter i The Urban Community, and the Methodology

OF ITS Survey ...... i

PART I : THE COLOURED FOLK OF CARDIFF

Chapter 2 Field Work Methods . . . . 25

3 Maritime Setting of the Community . 33

4 Its Historical and Industrial Background . 52

5 Demography, Amenities, Health, and Physique 85

6 Sociology: Life and Labour . . .104

PART 2: THE HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL
CONTEXT OF RACIAL RELATIONS
IN BRITAIN

Chapter 7 The Negroes in Britain — 1600 a. d. to the

Present Day . . . . . .165

8 T HE Development of English Racial Attitudes i 94

9 The Coloured Man Through English Eyes . 218
10 The Coloured Man’s Reaction to the English 247

APPENDICES

I An Aspect of the Colour Bar in English

Society . . . . . . .271

II A Note on the Cinema as a Factor in Racial

Attitudes . . . . . .282

Index .......... 285

V

SYNOPSIS

PAGE

Chapter i : The Urban Community, and the Methodology

OF ITS Survey

1 The meaning of “Community’* ..... i

2 The urban “cultural area” ...... 3

3 Methodological permanence of the “family” ... 5

4 The aim of English social surveys ..... 5

5 Technique and technical problems ..... 7

6 “Anthropological” v. “sociological” methods ... 8

7 The interview ........ 9

8 The questionnaire . . . . . , .10

9 Documentary records and other material . . . .12

10 Defining the problem . . . . , . .13

1 1 Some British methods of investigation . . . • * 3

1 2 The Chicago school . . . . . . .17

13 ^‘Middletown” ........ 20

14 Summary and conclusions . . . . . .22

Chapter 2: Field Work Methods

1 The resolution of the problem ..... 25

2 Technique of enquiry ....... 26

3 The making of contacts ...... 29

4 The nature of the interview . . . . • 3*

Chapter 3: Maritime Setting of the Community

1 Mercantile significance of Cardiff ..... 34

2 Cardiff and the tramp trade . • • • • 35

3 The shipping industry and the unions . . . -35

4 The “System” and its victims ..... 37

5 The boarding-house master ...... 38

6 Seamen as “lodgers” ....... 40

7 The Cardiff dockland . . . . . . .41

8 The maritime population and its location ... 44

9 The distribution of the coloured folk .... 45

10 Bute Street and its inhabitants ..... 47

11 “Caf(6” practices ....... 48

Chapter 4: Its Historical and Industrial Background

1 The early days of Loudoun Square ..... 52

2 Loudoun Square as an “ecological” phenomenon ... 53

vii

viii SYNOPSIS

PAGE

3 The coming of the Negroes ...... 56

4 The Cardiff racial riots and their aftermath . . *57

5 White and coloured competition for jobs .... 60

6 Some political repercussions ...... 62

7 The Aliens Orders, 1920 and 1925, and their application . 63

8 The coloured population as a “moral” problem ... 67

9 The call for Government aid to seamen and shipping . . 71

10 Effect of the Shipping Act on the coloured community . , 73

1 1 The part of the white Unions in the controversy ... 76

12 Precarious position of the Coloured community ... 78

13 Captain Richardson’s survey of maritime Cardiff . . .81

14 The spirit of persistence ...... 83

Chapter 5: Demography, Amenities, Health and Physiq^ue

Demography

1 National and racial composition ..... 85

2 Racial characteristics ...... 87

3 Relative stability of the community ..... 89

General Amenities

4 Housing and Homes ....... 92

5 Other amenities ....... 94

Health and Physique

6 Infant mortality and tuberculosis ..... 96

7 Overcrowding and hygiene ...... 98

8 Physique of the children and adults . . . . .102

Chapter 6: Sociology: Life and Labour

1 Colour prejudice in Cardiff . . . . . .104

2 Social Groupings: (a) Afro-West-Indians; (b) Moslems; (c) “Mixed-

bloods”; (d) “Politicians”; (e) Womenfolk; (f) quasi-members . 108

3 Relations within the community: (a) the criteria of status; (b) social

etiquette . . . . . . . .117

4 Economics: (a) Occupations and wages; (b) other earnings; (c) the

implications of rent; (d) family budgets; (e) savings, etc. . 12 1

5 Social and political control . . . . . .132

6 Family life and general social behaviour: (a) the family; (b) marital

and other relations; (c) general social behaviour; (d) gambling;

(e) clubs and the cinema; (f) drinking and dancing . -135

7 The Religious Outlook: (a) Christians; (b) African customs;

(c) “Fatalists”; (d) Moslems ..... 146

SYNOPSIS

IX

PAGE

*

8 Social Training and Education: (a) psychological factors in the

home; (b) the problem of “control”; (c) the background of
knowledge; (d) lack of educational incentive; (e) the social
results . . . . . . . . ,151

9 Summary and Conclusions . . . . . .161

Chapter 7: The Negro in Britain — 1600 a.d. to the Present

Day

1 The first coloured inhabitants of Britain . . . .165

2 Negroes as social insignia . . . . . .167

3 The Negro’s domestic role . . . . . .168

4 Confusion over the legal position of Negroes . . .170

5 Friends of the Negro . . . . . . • ^73

6 The Negro’s bid for freedom . . . . . .174

7 The legal battle for Emancipation Begins . . . .176

8 Granville Sharp takes a hand . . . . .178

9 The aftermath of Negro “Emancipation” . . . .182

10 The Sierra Leone solution . . . . . .184

11 Other coloured and Asiatic inhabitants . . . .185

12 The first coloured “students” come to Britain . . .186

13 Young Naimbanna . . . . . . .189

14 The 19th century and the development of colonial contacts . 190

Chapter 8: The Development of English Racial Attitudes

1 Early liberalism . . . . . . • ^94

2 Eminent 18th-century Negroes . . . . • ^99

3 The Negro in 19th-century fiction ..... 203

4 The Abolitionists and popular attitudes . . . .205

5 The growth of prejudice ....•• 207

6 The philosophical background and colonial contacts . . 210

7 The part of the colonial class . . . . . .215

Chapter 9: The Coloured Man Through Modern English

Eyes

1 Lack of popular knowledge and interest . . . .218

2 The official standpoint . . . . • .223

3 “Resistance” to coloured people and its extent . . . 225

4 Physical repulsions and their analysis . . . ,226

5 Economic competition and colour-class-consciousness . .231

6 The question of intermarriage . . . • *234

1 *

X

SYNOPSIS

PAGE

7 The appeal to “innate” and cultural differences . . . 237

8 Favourable attitudes — emotive and ideological . . . 239

9 Empiricism in racial relationships ..... 242

10 Present trend of liberalism ...... 243

1 1 Summary ........ 245

Chapter 10: The Coloured Man’s Reaction to the English

1 Introduction ........ 247

2 The West Indian and African backgrounds .... 249

3 The difficulties of inter-racial contacts in Britain . . .251

4 Some West Indian reactions ...... 252

5 Various types of discrimination and their repercussions . .256

6 Further implications of racial self-consciousness . . .258

7 Disillusion and disappointment . . . . .260

8 Some examples of ‘‘hypersensitivity” . . . . .261

9 The political “safety-valve” . . . . . .263

10 Inter-racial co-operation an individual affair . . . 265

1 1 Summary and conclusions ...... 268

PREFACE

My general purpose in undertaking this work was to examine
the social interactions and reactions resulting from the presence
of coloured people in Britain, choosing as a specific example
a coloured community in the dockland of Cardiff. I soon found
that my study made it necessary to enter rather deeply into
certain aspects of English culture, and especially to review certain
historical antecedents. Without doing this it was impossible to
provide more than a superficial interpretation of social attitudes
and motives which appear not only to play a prominent part in
the situation to-day, but to be equally relevant in predicting its
future. This point anticipates later methodological considera-
tions, but the extra emphasis may perhaps be pardoned, for it
touches on a fundamental problem of theory. If we admit the
non-static nature of society as an established fact, then its positive
implication — that social behaviour and social forms, past,
present, and future, are to be regarded as a continuum — seems
methodologically to follow.

Much of my interest in the subject of this work was prompted
by personal experience, in company with West African friends,
of the working of the Colour Bar in this country. I need hardly
add, therefore, that my attitude is affected by sympathy for the
victims of this prejudice, and by a considerable amount of
irritation with the ideas and factors which underlie it. I am also
interested in the world-wide repercussions of a matter about
which there is still much apathy and ignorance amongst the
British public. It is not widely appreciated, for example, that
very many of the future leaders of the British Colonial areas
spend two or more years in this country at a most impressionable
period of their lives; or that the ideas and notions they obtain
here of British people and European ways are likely in the long
run to influence some sixty million coloured people abroad.
This may be a fact of some significance if, as some, possibly
gloomy, prophets predict, the main future political alignments
of mankind will form themselves on colour lines.

It seems important for methodological reasons to mention
these points. The social scientist who claims that he is employing

XU

PREFACE

the same methods of approach to a problem as the natural
scientist incurs a like obligation to assess and describe the
condition and efficiency of his instruments. Through unavoidable
circumstances the chemist’s balance may be slightly biassed,
but provided he is aware of this, makes due allowance for it,
and above all, warns his reader of his difficulty, no great harm
is done. In the present case, so far as I can analyse my own
motives, the bias is perhaps less likely to result in a conscious
exaggeration of racial incidents in themselves than in an un-
conscious disregard of mitigating circumstances in the general
context.

The further aims of this work, including its opportunities
of theoretical treatment, are less likely to affect the methodological
issue. They may be stated briefly as follows:

1. To draw the attention of anthropologists in this country
in concrete terms to the possibilities of applying their discipline
more positively to the study of urban society. The absence, for
example, of anything like a sociological study of the class system
of Great Britain is a reproach to the social sciences, and so far
as anthropologists are concerned, involves the loss of valuable
opportunities of preparing for the newer urban problems of the
Colonial field. To take an instance from the British colonies,
the fact that West African people are absorbing ever more
European educational and social traits means that they are
entering more and more into a European social system, and
must be studied and understood to an increasing extent in terms
of that system. Experience of the latter, therefore, is necessary
both for analysis and prediction, particularly at the present time,
if social anthropology is to continue to justify its claim for con-
sideration by Colonial Administrations. Another danger is
already evident, namely, that in the absence of “anthropo-
logical” or “sociological” attention, subjects peculiarly suitable
for study in this country by scientific methods will be taken over
by agencies and individuals less adequately equipped to handle
them.

2. To plead, also, for scientific attention to be given to the
study of racial relations (or group relations, if the generic term
be preferred) in its own right. Many studies of “acculturation”
already stand to the credit of British anthropology, but questions
which could previously be resolved in terms mainly of the

PREFACE

Xlll

exchange and' mutual acceptance of traits between widely
different cultures have altered their form. As the late Professor
R. E. Park has pointed out in his Introduction to Dr, D. Pierson’s
Negroes in Brazil, the Colonial problem of yesterday is taking on a
fresh shape as the racial and national problem of to-day. In
many parts of the British Colonial Empire, particularly in the
West Indies, West and East Africa, there is a popular stirring
in terms of racial and class loyalties which calls for study with
special regard to its social and psychological implications.

This work was accepted for the Doctorate of Philosophy,
University of London.

K. L. Little.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

In connection with this work, I should like to thank
most sincerely Dr. Raymond Firth, Professor of
Anthropology in the University of London, for his
encouragement and for very many helpful suggestions
and much invaluable criticism.

Amongst many others who helped me in various
ways and whom I should also like to thank particularly
are my wife; Dr. Harold Moody, M.D., B.S., President
of the League of Coloured People, for affording me
access to the files and publications of the League;
members and students of the Workers Educational
Association; officials of the Cardiff Corporation;
Miss Nancie Sharpe; the Librarian, and members of
the Staff of the Cardiff Public Library, and last but
not least, many members of the coloured comnjunity
in Cardiff, whose interest and help in my enquiry
require special acknowledgement.

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER I

THE URBAN COMMUNITY, AND THE METHODOLOGY

OF ITS SURVEY

I. The Meaning of “Community”

Community is one of the commonest words in the sociological
vocabulary: it is also one of the most difficult to define. Some
writers make it practically synonymous with “society”; others
confine it to special kinds of aspects of social fact. Thus Maciver,
out of the infinite series of social relationships which society
includes, prefers to distinguish certain “nuclei of intenser common
life”, be they cities, nations or tribes, and to think of these as
par excellence communities.^ Such a definition permits the term
to be further narrowed down to mean any area of common life,
small or large — a village or a city. However, to deserve the name
“community”, says this writer, “the area must be somehow
distinguished from further areas, the common life must have
some characteristic of its own such that the frontiers of the area
have some meaning”.^ Even more important, perhaps, than the
geographical and cultural implications thus suggested, is the
structural aspect of community. In the common living and
intercourse of social beings the community embodies the various
ways in which the social life is pursued and organized. It provides
the context within which association in respect of common aims
and interests takes place and functions.

A community, therefore, is characterized by a common
background of experience — the experience of its members in
living together and sharing a common social life; but not
necessarily by a common background of interest. This means
that it is possible to regard a community in two lights. One, the
structural, is recognized partly in spatial terms, and partly in

^ R. M. Maciver, Community: A Sociological Study, p. 23.

* ibid. The meaning intended is obviously a cultural one — manners, traditions,
modes of speech, and so on.

2

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

terms of a common culture and pattern of behaviour.^ The
second, the functional aspect, is recognizable in the way its
associations are grouped and its activities organized. Methodo-
logically, the approach to the first is largely descriptive; to the
second, analytical as well.

Modern students of urban sociology have been particularly
impressed by the former, the cultural, aspects of community;
largely perhaps because, in response to the peculiar mobility of
the modern city, interests and aggregates tend to be constructed
on lines less easy to disentangle than those of the familiar family
and neighbourhood organization of the peasant community.
In the urban environment, it has been claimed, the family
scarcely exists except in its “conjugal” and severely mutilated
form. Even this, the mere nucleus represented by a single house-
hold, is barely holding its own in the face of the continuous
daily absence of its male head for ten or twelve waking hours out
of sixteen, and the temporary or permanent emigration of its
younger members to school or to seek work in other districts or
towns. Family attitudes and interests, which are the basis of
local and neighbourhood unity, are being replaced by a nexus
of vocational attitudes and interests based on the specialization
of modern industry. Such interests cut across local areas, define
themselves spatially as city- wide, and take much of the individual’s
life out of the family and neighbourhood. Occupational activities
over a space of time influence social attitudes and give men an
occupational attitude towards life. ^ People who work together
at the same tasks meet to exchange ideas, and in time these
occupational attitudes create social cleavages. The family’s
integrative role is usurped more and more by sectional interests —
unions, lodges, institutions, whose influence and distribution
may be even nation-wide. The very “march of the city”, as
commerce and industry push out from its centre, encroach upon

^ These views of community play a large part in the definition by members of the
Chicago school, notably H. W. Zorbaugh, cf. : “An area does not become a community
merely by having distributed over it a number of people and institutions, or by those
people having certain interests in common. Still less does it become a community by
virtue of being an administrative or political unit. An area becomes a community
only through the common experiences of the people who live in it, resulting in their
becoming a cultural group, with traditions, sentiments and attitudes, and memories
in common — a focus of belief, feeling and action” {The Gold Coast and the Slum,
p. 222).

* cf. E. S. Bogardus, “The Occupational Attitude.” J. of App. Soc., viii, Jan.-Feb.

1924, pp. 170-7*

THE URBAN COMMUNITY

3

residential neighbourhoods, and turn the population back upon
itself, results in added instability and change, and this in turn
has further significant implications for local life. If the city’s
population is increasing, the subtler influences of sympathy,
rivalry and economic necessity tend to control the distribution of
its members, and ultimately to determine those congregations
of its people, which in terms of the urban definition may be
adjudged to qualify as communities.

In the course of time every section and quarter of the city
takes on something of the character and qualities of its inhabitants
and is inevitably marked with their peculiar sentiments. These
more or less separate quarters or sections come into being in a
variety of ways. Business and manufacturing concerns seek
advantageous locations and draw a certain number of inhabitants
around them. Fashionable residential districts spring up from
which the poorer classes are excluded because of the increased
land value. There grows up, also, slums inhabited by large
numbers of the poorer classes who are unable to defend themselves
from association with the derelict and vicious. ^ Most great cities
have their racial colonies, like the Chinatowns of San Francisco,
the coloured districts of New York, and on a rather smaller scale,
the dock areas of British cities such as London, Liverpool and
Cardiff.

2. The Urban “Cultural Area”

Every city has its occupational suburbs. Sociologically
speaking, the interesting characteristic of these population-
sections or communities, apart from the fact that they are mainly
composed of persons of the same social and economic class, is
that they are accretive rather than endemic. They tend to grow
as much by the arrival of fresh immigrants, drawn thither by their
economic and other amenities, tis by the natural increase in the
families which composed the original settlement. Such com-
munities, particularly those of the medium and higher income
classes, largely consist of quite discrete family or individual units,
conscious of a common economic and cultural background, but

^ cf. R. E. Park, “Suggestions for the Study of Behaviour in the Urban Environ-
ment**, The City, p. 6.

4

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

psychologically as well as physically separated from each other
not only by garden walls and fences but by lack of common
interests and activities.

Such communities, it might be argued, are fundamentally
different from those conventionally dealt with by the anthro-
pologist in a pre-literate society, or, though to a lesser extent, by
the investigator in a peasant group. In the latter cases, the family,
usually with an extension of consanguineous relatives and other
connections, provides the general focus for nearly all interest
and activity, and serves as the regulator of social behaviour and
the cultural norm. Not only are a very large number of economic
as well as social transactions carried out solely in terms of this
affinal and consanguineous group, but family attitudes and
notions of right and wrong are intrinsically as much a family
endowment and a qualification of its members as are industrial
techniques and community of material property. The methodo-
logical implications of such a situation are very important. By
analysing the life of and the sanctions governing a single family
or a random series of families in a pre-literate society, the anthro-
pologist has a guide to the structure of that society, and is often
enabled to forecast the behaviour of a whole community. Such
a procedure is valid, however, only if the community in question
provides virtually the whole world of its members. It requires
that experience shall exist as a fairly common factor, and above
all, that individual interests shall be envisaged basically in terms
of the group as a whole.

In the urban environment all these conditions are consider-
ably modified. Individual aims tend to be thought of vocationally
rather than socially; experience is the product of diverse and often
conflicting opportunities, and, above all, personal values and
incentives are often based on sanctions unacceptable to the
consanguineous or immediate social group. All this makes the
individual family a less suitable criterion of group behaviour, and
suggests that the real determinants of life in the urban community
lie elsewhere and may be studied more profitably in the peculiar
characteristics of industrial society — in economic forces, such as
the value of land, or in technical inventions and technological
adaptations, such as the screen and the radio.

THE URBAN COMMUNITY

5

3. Methodological Permanence of the “Family”

Despite all this, there are several even more fundamental
reasons why the investigator should continue to regard the family
and certain of its activities as his base line. For one thing, it is
still the only institution with unitary significance for the com-
munity as a whole, and moreover, is still capable of producing
and exercising social cohesion to a degree which is sometimes
more real than might be supposed. The family still retains its
role as the primary factor in the widest sense in economic produc-
tion and consumption, and this means that questions of income
and standards of living are best resolved and measured in terms
of households rather than of the individuals who compose them.
The fact that familial agencies themselves may be taking on
an increasingly specialized and standardized character under the
impact of newer and more pervasive educational forces tends to
modify, but not to alter, the primary psychological situation.
It is still within the home, from his parents and his older brothers
and sisters, that the individual receives his earliest and in several
respects most indelible impressions of the outside world and his
relationships with it. However much it may concede to external
and material factors and “causes”, the urban survey cannot
afford to neglect these considerations.

4. The Aim of English Social Surveys

So far as social surveys in Great Britain are concerned, one
further point calls for comment. They have been inspired in the
main, as Ginsberg remarks, by direct interest in practical reform,
and not by any comprehensive theory of society as a whole.
Indeed, except in America, such studies have usually been
conducted not by sociologists, but by exponents of the special
social sciences, such as economists, statisticians, public health
officials and the like. ^ A cursory examination of relevant social
survey literature supports this observation. Most inquiries have
been concerned with the category of social situation popularly
known as the “social problem”, or what Ginsberg terms social
pathology, i.e., the study of social maladjustments and dis-
^ M. Ginsberg, Study of Society: “Problems and Methods of Sociology,” p. 439.

6

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

turbances and the methods used for dealing with them. ^ Even
the most objectively designed survey does not exclude a certain
amount of moral judgment (see below), and the motivation of
many such enquiries is clearly social rather than sociological.
Two British pioneers in social research have stated their position
quite clearly:

“The problem in hand is not merely the practical one of the improvement
of the environment, but the more fundamental question of how to direct the
attention of men and women, and still more of the rising generation, to the
natural conditions and social possibilities of the world around them in their
own neighbourhood, so that a more informed public spirit may deal more
successfully with current evils, and a more vivid imagination be directed to
the realization of ideals.” ^

Such a question raises a methodological as well as a utilitarian
issue. Granting that both the sociologist and the social reformer
have an interest in and recognize the importance of the special
or “social” problem, how far can their roles be effectively com-
bined? The sociologist will argue that it is not merely a matter of
obtaining as much relevant information on the subject as possible,
but of deciding how far the particular problem can usefully be
abstracted from its wider social and cultural context. These two
aspects of the methodology — the means by which the necessary
information and data are collected and assembled, and the
manner in which the specific problem and its implications are
resolved — depend to a large extent upon the kind of field under
investigation, and for the same reason are worthy of some detailed
illustration. Discussing the usual approach in British local
surveys, A. F. Wells ^ shows that the main sources of material

^ ibid. A few comments on the interests which prompted most of these surveys
will exemplify this point. In most cases their initiation seems to have been due to
persons having some personal connection with the area surveyed. Out of 32 cases of
general surveys, the initiation was in 1 3 instances due to a local group, and in 1 1
instances to an individual personally connected with the locality. In 8 cases the
report was apparently not preceded by any special investigation. In 15 cases, the
investigation was organized by an individual who generally was not a professional
investigator, cf. A. F. Wells, The Social Survey in Great Britain.

* cf. Branford and Farquharson, Introduction to Regional Surveys, p. 7. The practical
implications of the British social survey are made very clear in Wells’ useful summary
(op. cit.). He comes to the conclusion that “The aim of the social survey may be said
(subject to some reservations) to be the collection of facts relating to some social
problems and conditions in order to assist directly or indirectly the formulation of
practical measures with reference to such problems . . . and we must note the much
wider aims of various community investigations which so far as this country is con-
cerned seems not so much the discovery of facts new to research workers as the making
the community mentally and spiritually coherent by self-knowledge” (pp. 42 and 48),

^ Wells, op. cit., pp. 50-1,

THE URBAN COMMUNITY

7

are four: first, the personal experience of the writer; second, the
use of available documents, with or without manipulation of
statistics; third, special “indirect” investigations (or “mass
interview”); fourth, special “direct” or “house to house” in-
vestigations.

5. Technique and Technical Problems

Such a summary is useful in so far as it represents methods
employed in the cases under review, but it hardly seems wide
enough either practically or theoretically to satisfy all the possi-
bilities and implications of sociological analysis. The collection
of data and the choice of the means employed to collect them are
an obvious and essential part of the sociologist’s work, but even
they are not the primary considerations in an aspect of the matter
to which, because it seems elementary, insufficient attention is
sometimes paid. In the field of social anthropology the first
problem of the investigator, as Audrey Richards points out,^ is
to make contact with the people studied so that they will be
willing either to answer his questions or to allow him to observe;
he should even participate in their activities as far as possible.
Neglect of this preliminary step may affect the collection of
information in two ways. It may make the assembly of data
unnecessarily difficult or precarious, or it may denote a definite
bias in, or even impart one to, the investigator’s attitude to his
material. The actual methods of collecting material are usually
spoken of as the technique. Their corner-stone in any kind of
field work is still the personal interview; but the less direct
evaluation of persons, families, objects, etc., by noting what the
subjects say in the context of their daily life, as well as the context
of their conversation and their spontaneous reactions, is hardly
less important. When the communities concerned are literate,
questionnaires may be addressed to, and biographies and auto-
biographies sought from them. It is useful also to make direct
observations on behaviour, noting what happened, how the
people concerned comported themselves, and who the actors
were on specific occasions and in specific circumstances.

^ cf. A. I. Richards, “The Development of Field Work Methods in Social Anthro-
pology**, Study of Society y pp« 272-316.

8

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

6. “Anthropological” v. “Sociological” Methods

One of the major difficulties of the anthropologist often is
how to attain a condition of “oneness” with the people he is
studying, and to gain acceptance into their (tribal) circle. This
consideration provides a convenient point of transition from
“anthropological” to “sociological” study, ^ in so far as the
methods and procedure of the former, as advocated by various
social anthropologists, differ in kind from those of the latter.
It is barely possible, for example, that a sociologist studying a
community in his own society should be culturally as alien to
them as an anthropologist to a society of pre-literate Melanesians.
Yet, despite all its very considerable advantages, cultural identity
is not wholly beneficial from the point of view of research.
Sometimes, easier means of access and better opportunities of
social intercourse are available only at the expense of objectivity
and of a neglect of significant features because of their association
with the obvious and everyday.

The main advantage of the “civilized” subject of study lies,
however, in its enabling material, particularly of the contextual
kind, to be accumulated much more rapidly. Whereas the
anthropologist may be obliged to build up most of his factual
background through the laborious medium of the interview, the
sociologist usually has the same kind of information, to a lavish
extent, already to hand in official documents and reports, and
other records. Not only has he the appreciable guidance of
historical events to safeguard him as well as to stimulate his
further course, but from the “sociological” point of view, inter-
viewing, and even more delicate methods of interpretation, may
be as much a means of checking previously accumulated in-
formation as of extracting hitherto unknown facts about a given
situation. He has at his disposal, as a rule, not only the advantage
of his subjects’ and informants’ literacy, but the even greater
blessing of linguistic certainty in his communications with them.
On this much firmer basis he is not obliged, as a scientist, merely
to scratch at the factual surface of the more complicated psycho-

^ Taking “anthropological* * for the moment as concerned with the pre-literate,
and “sociological** with the Western and contemporary, field of society.

THE URBAN COMMUNITY Q

logical factors underlying certain items of cultural behaviour.^
On the other hand, in observing behaviour and noting conversa-
tion and conversation patterns, there is no great dissimilarity
between the two techniques. Nevertheless, in the sociological
case, as Firth points out, it is more necessary to adhere to statistical
principles of random sampling. Whereas the investigator of the
smaller, less differentiated community may reasonably expect
a fairly representative and reliable expression of public opinion
and psychological attitudes from the cross-sections he deals with
in his ordinary routine, the larger and more involved modern
city community represents considerable diversity of interest
between its frequently conflicting economic, occupational, and
vocational elements. For this reason, too, both the increased
sophistication of the situation and the subject itself require that
the interview technique, in particular, should be applied with a
more subtle regard for its verbal and other implications. ^

7. The Interview

The interview, indeed, remains the chief standby of the
investigator. Writing of its technique and application “in the
field”, Nadel'"^ points out that the anthropologist usually employs
it exclusively to obtain information about the “objective facts”

^ Particularly when interpreting psychological attitudes and behaviour, which
usually requires a very great degree of familiarity on the investigator’s part with
the implications of tone, use of words, and other verbal and cultural idiosyncrasies
in the society studied. It is doubtful if the more delicate nuances of expression can be
scientifically acquired within the scope of the ordinary field investigation lasting merely
one or two years, despite the fact that some workers show little hesitation in laying
claim to them.

* Raymond Firth, “An Anthropologist’s View of Mass Observation,’^ Soc. Rev,^
1938. Firth suggests that the true analysis of “interest” may be approached better
in terms of the actual wording of the reply than in those of the opinion actually
expressed. For example, in the analysis of “interest in crises” {Britain by Mass~
Observation) at the end of August, 1938, 460 people were asked if their interest in
crises was increasing or decreasing. Mass-Observation came to the conclusion that
“the important point to notice is that the largest group here is that which is feeling
a definite decreasing interest in crises”. Ten typical replies in the “decreasing” group
were quoted, and five of them included the following statements: —

1. “Decreasing, so much so that I dislike listening to the News.”

2. “Decreasing interest; it’s too blasted uncomfortable.”

3. “Decreasing, because the helplessness of the individual appals me.”

4. “Makes me sick to open a paper.”

5. “If people start talking about another war, I feel like saying ‘For goodness*
sake, shut up!’.”

® cf. S. F. Nadel, “The Interview Technique in Social Anthropology,’* The Study
of Society, pp. 317-27.

lO

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

of culture and society, the person interviewed being assigned the
role of an informant. He considers that this “objective” reality
with which the anthropologist is concerned is a social reality,
and that the informant and his responses are themselves elements
and factors in it. ^ For this reason, he stresses the importance of
observation even in the interview itself, for observation can be
used to check information obtained by interviews, and inter-
views to obtain information about facts which have been or are
being observed. Moreover, in the intensive type of interview
designed to elicit a coherent account of a practice, the attention
and interest of the informant must be stimulated and main-
tained, for it rarely happens that both interviewer and informant
are inspired by the single motive of scientific interest. Nor, in the
opinion of this writer, is the informant’s sophistication necessarily
helpful in arriving at objective reality, since any preconceived
ideas he may possess on the specific topic may “blur” the problem
rather than assist in its elucidation. On the other hand, the
stimulation desired may be effected by the deliberate introduc-
tion of controversial topics; while it is sometimes profitable to
employ the leading question as such.

8. The Questionnaire

The questionnaire, rarely used in the conventional anthro-
pological field, also serves a purpose. It may range all the way
from a list of general questions which the subjects answer by
writing descriptive essays (“open” type) to the ballot paper
(“closed” type), consisting of one or two more specific questions,
each followed by a set of possible answers, the subject merely
marking the answer he prefers. Its aim is to enquire into attitude
and experience, and the development of social, political and other
sentiments. Certain difficulties are, however, attached to its
use, the most obvious being that of framing questions incapable
of an ambiguous reply. Others are the risk of subjectivity in its
form, a possible lack of frankness on the part of the subject, his

^ ibid. W. I. Thomas has amplified this point as follows: “A social institution
can be understood (and modified) only if we do not limit ourselves to the study of its
formal organization, but analyse the way in which it appears to the personal experience
of various members of the group, and follow the influence which it has on their lives,**
cf. The Unadjusted Girl, p. 244.

THE URBAN COMMUNITY

II

lack of time, difficulty in formulating replies, and even over-
enthusiasm or suspicion, or reading some unforeseen meaning
into the questions. Perhaps an even greater objection to the
questionnaire lies in possible misconstruction by the investigator
of a subject’s open answer; herein, as a check on this, lies the
importance of the sociological and empirical approach. ^ Never-
theless, to a somewhat limited extent the questionnaire has its
uses, mainly perhaps in providing access to a far wider section
of public opinion than an examination of individual attitudes
could hope to reach by any other means. Granted that the
principles of random sampling are observed, the large statistical
sample has the further advantage of overcoming several sources
of error which are frequently held to invalidate such methods;
for errors due to carelessness and over-conscientiousness, re-
ticence and exhibitionism tend in the mass to cancel one another
out. It is only those influences that affect the majority of the
group in the same way, e.g. the bias towards respectability,
which are liable to mislead. Vernon thinks that three preliminary
conditions are desirable before setting the questionnaire: (a) the
investigator should “soak” himself in the field of enquiry and
discuss it with many persons of divergent opinions before attempt-
ing to formulate specific questions; (b) the formulations should
be undertaken jointly by several people all familiar with the

^ Firth, op. cit., quotes in illustration of this a further mis-reading on the part of
Mass-Observation. In a survey on the danger of war, i,ioo people were asked; “On
what do you base your opinion?’* Mass-observation interpreted the material thus: —

“Answers showed us:

O/

/o

“Newspapers ......... 35

Friends . . . . . . . . . • ^7

Radio . . . . . . . . . *13

‘Own opinion’ ........ 8

Recent history or travel ....... 8

Books .......... 5

Other factors (instinct, observation, human nature, etc.) . 10

Negative ......... 4

“Newspapers, therefore, easily lead in importance among the factors that make
opinion.’’ In such an interpretation, as Firth points out, two kinds of sociological
fact are merged — the informant’s impression of the role which newspapers and the
other factors mentioned play in moulding his opinion, and the real extent to wliich
they do so. Mass-observation hgis turned the statistics of the first phenomenon into a
positive generalization about the second. “Yet,” Firth concludes, “for this to be
legitimate certain assumptions have to be made, such as, that the people questioned
were able to differentiate clearly between the real effects of the factors mentioned;
and were not influenced by some specific recent experience— a family row about
politics, a film they had just seen ... a fortune-teller’s description of them as ‘strong-
minded’.”

12

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

field; (c) the questionnaire should be tried out on a small number
of people before general distribution.^

9. Documentary Records and Other Material

Like the questionnaire, the biographical or autobiographical
type of record is a source of information almost exclusive to the
sociological survey. Personal records, diaries, correspondence,
case studies, etc., throw light in the first place upon the personality
development of the subject, but also upon his social group and
the institutions which have influenced that development. Shaw’s
study of juvenile delinquency provides an outstanding example
of this in the shape of a record written by one of his subjects. ^
Essays, and writings of a non-biographical type, also afford
many possibilities of analysis. These are usually less self-conscious,
and though they give less direct clue to the nature of social
influence as shown by prejudices, rationalisations and so on,
common in the personal record, they afford a useful estimate of
the general cultural influence. The deliberate setting of an essay
on a given theme, when practicable, has likewise its uses, as has
also the problem story or situation. Obviously these media
represent more specialized techniques, and their value as well
as their use may be largely dependent on the nature of the problem
concerned.^ Indeed, the whole subject of literary and other
overt sources of material and information raises questions which,
perhaps, are best treated under the general heading of method-
ology. In the contemporary community it is obvious that many
external factors are operative which are common to all civilised
society rather than peculiar to any one section of it. These
include the daily newspaper, the film, the popular novel and
periodical, the radio, etc., and the colour which they impart,
whether cultural or social, has also to be taken into account in
the general appraisal.

* P. E. Vernon, “Questionnaires, Attitude Tests, and Rating Scales,” Study of
Society, pp. 199-229.

* C. R. Shaw, The Jack Roller; A Study in Delinquency. Another investigator who
has made great use of this kind of instrument with F. Znaniecki is W. I. Thomas
(see his Unadjusted Girl and, more particularly. The Polish Peasant in America ) .

* Vernon, op. cit. Some effective use of these methods was made by the Lynds in
their study of Middletown (see below) in the shape of newspaper cuttings, articles,
etc.

THE URBAN COMMUNITY

13

10. Defining the Problem

With this consideration in mind we can turn to the broader
implications of the methodology proper, regarding the interview,
questionnaires, literary records, etc., as the main and most
appropriate tools of enquiry. Here, there can be no hesitation
in saying, is involved the investigator’s general modm operandi,
the manner in which he views and states his problem and his
method of approaching it. In some situations, of which those
whose ramifications are mainly economic are the best example,
the approach may be very much on quantitative lines. In other
cases, where social relations and behaviour are the chief considera-
tion, a purely descriptive, or at best typological, approach may
be the more satisfactory method. It has to be remembered that
methodology includes the re-statement of a situation as well as the
statement of the facts relevant to it. Precise rules, in consequence,
are very difficult to formulate, and would seem to depend, if
survey material is any criterion, on the personal interests and
qualifications of the investigator and on the nature of the problem,
rather than on any rigidly prescribed basis. In the circumstances,
therefore, a short comparative study of the problems attempted
and the methodology pursued will probably be more helpful
than generalizations of, so far, unproved validity.

II. Some British Methods of Investigation

We have already remarked that sociological enquiry in this
country has been undertaken mainly in terms of the “social
problem”.^ Investigators in this category include Charles Booth
and his successors, B. S. Rowntree, the Tyneside investigators,
and many others, concerned for the most part with the enumera-
tion of persons living in poverty in London and other towns, and
the degree of and reasons for their poverty. In attempting to
answer such questions. Booth addressed most of his enquiries to

^ One of the tantalising features of this type of enquiry is that from the sociological
angle it often opens up more problems than it solves. For example, the Merseyside
Survey provides a very interesting analysis of immigration into the district. The
enquiry covers only place of origin and economic and occupational status, but could
profitably be extended into the cultural background and problems of cultural adjust-
ment of the groups.

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

14

School Attendance Officers in order to ascertain the incomes of
the parents of all children of school age, and on the principle
of random sampling arrived at a number of income classes or
categories. Rowntree, who followed him in this type of study,
made direct enquiries into such matters as rent and household
necessities as well as income. Both Booth and Rowntree took the
abstract concept of poverty and set about re-stating it in the
purely quantitative language of income and expenditure. In
addition to his estimate of “primary” and “secondary” poverty,
Rowntree concerned himself with the factors associated with
the state of poverty. He therefore made an analysis of relevant
conditions, for example housing, dividing houses into three
categories: those occupied by the well-to-do artisan, the four-
room type occupied by families in receipt of moderate but regular
wages, and those in the poorest districts — the typical “slum”
dwellings. Rowntree also attempted to relate poverty to health
standards, analysing such data as vital statistics, the family
budget, and the interrelation of weight and height. He dealt
also in more descriptive terms with a number of more sociological
features, such as public-houses and clubs, education, the influence
of the Christian churches, trade unionism, co-operation, etc., in
order to provide a general picture of the conditions which govern
the lives of the working-class community of York.

Rowntree’s approach is essentially factual, consisting in the
accumulation of a fairly large amount of material which he
judged to be of interest to his central problem. Actually it is
a study, not so much of town life, as its author calls it, as, of the
economic factors which underlie and determine the physical
aspects of that life. The “poorer” classes are methodo-
logically isolated from the social structure as a whole, and there
is little or no attempt to elucidate the part they play in the general
scheme of social and psychological incentives.

Much the same might be said of other important British
surveys, and to some extent of the extensive new London survey ^
of some years back. This was carried out by the London School of
Economics as a continuation of the earlier Booth survey, and its
results, issued in nine volumes, give much interesting sociological
as well as purely factual information regarding modern society.
Many of Booth’s methods were employed. There is an elaborate

> Surv^ of London Life and Labour, King, 1930-35.

THE URBAN COMMUNITY 15

use of maps to denote the classification of London’s population
street by street in social and economic grades,^ Industrial
organization, occupations, and the features associated with them,
such as rates of pay, trade practices, trade unionism and its
effect, labour recruitment and training, etc., are extensively
treated. The economic results of technical mechanization, its
effect on working hours and casual employment, and the scale of
employment are also described, but rather as isolated phenomena
than as part of the general cultural context. Various social
problems are treated in much the same quantitative way, and
delinquency, crime, etc., seem to be looked upon rather as
peculiar pathological traits than of aspects of a wider cultural
pattern.^ Curiously enough, this view is something implicit in
the Survey’s own remarks. ^ One or two specific sections, however,
throw direct and original light on institutional and sociological
features, mainly, it would seem, as a result of empirical methods. ^

^ Compare this plotting of social and economic areas with the American
“ecological” approach, which tends to regard such areas as cultural rather than
economic concepts.

^ G. R. Shaw advances a succinct sociological comment on this approach when he
points out that although it has been quite common in discussions of delinquency to
attribute causal significance to such conditions as poor housing, overcrowding, low
living and educational standards and so on, these conditions themselves probably
reflect a type of community life. In treating them one is treating only the symptoms
of more basic processes. Even the disorganized family and the delinquent gang, which
are often thought of as the main factors in delinquency, probably reflect community
situations. {Delinquency Areas, Univ. of Chic., p. 205.)

^ For example: “Gambling . . . to-day is a widespread habit, it arises from
failures and shortcomings in our social life of a more fundamental nature. ... If we
are to deal with these deep-seated dangers, of which the gambling habit is merely one
expression, we shall have to adventure in a far wider and more difficult field. Anything
less than this may mean little more than a change of arena, as when gambling is
transferred from horses to dogs, or from the race-course to the Stock Exchange; or of
vogue, as when one vice or malpractice gives way to another not necessarily less
harmful.”

* See, for example, the investigation into the drinking habit. Visits were paid to
some 620 public houses all over London, and in the words of the Survey — “in these
visits the information sought and obtained naturally varied according to circum-
stances and opportunities and a rigid routine of observation was adhered to
throughout.” A large number of conversations with barmen and customers were
undertaken, and counts were taken to provide some sort of quantitative check
on the impressions received. Access to the books of three or four apparently
representative houses acted as a further check on these impressions, and help was
also received from the Trade and its critics. The main subjects of conversation
were noted, then roughly confirmed by counts of the people talking, and finally
accepted when they had been tried out on three or four public-house customers and
landlords. By these means an estimate was obtained of the amount of beer drunk,
the proportion of income spent on it, drinking habits by beverage, age and sex, the
extent of home drinking, the psychological attitude towards drunkenness and the
position of the pawnshop in this connection. The general environment of the public-
house was also assessed; what compartments there were and who occupied them,

1 6 NEGROES IN BRITAIN

In Other respects this survey is less stimulating from the socio-
logical angle; the reader is left in large measure to surmise for
himself the social attitudes and everyday habits of 20th-century
Londoners, and is offered relatively little insight into the cultural
subtleties which affect their lives and outlook.^ The implication
is, perhaps, that the social tendencies of the contemporary world
are so well known as to render further elucidation superfluous.
Even if such a generalization were true, the value of the work as a
historical document would have been much enhanced by the
inclusion of further relevant material.

It is unnecessary to elaborate on this matter in view of the
general absence from British surveys of what may be regarded as
proper social material, i.e. information respecting people’s every-
day habits and customs. Fairly recently, an attempt was made
by the originators of “Mass-Observation” to remedy this by means
of a number of national as well as local surveys. The earlier work
of this body up to 1940, already mentioned, has been criticized
from the anthropological point of view by Firth, ^ and as some
of his main conclusions are quoted on previous pages, it is un-
necessary to recapitulate more than the general method of Mass-
Observation, which lies largely in the application of so-called
anthropological technique (“participant-observer”) by members
of the public. More recently still, Charles Madge, one of the
original Mass-Observationists, has been carrying out a number
of surveys on war-time spending habits in various towns and
districts of this country, the estimate being made chiefly by the
method of direct enquiry. ^ As this work is concerned, however,
with a particular aspect of community life rather than with its
general activities, it does not immediately enter the scope of the
present review. We may proceed therefore to consider survey
material in the United States of America.

how orders were given, and what kinds of games were played. Finally, the institu-
tional effects of the public-house received attention; its position as a community centre,
as an organizer of social activities, the personality of the landlord, and one or two
less directly related features.

^ The only deliberate attempt to obtain such material (apart, perhaps, from the
above-mentioned study of the Public-house) consisted in inviting essays from members
of the lower income groups, small prizes being offered, and a general indication given
of the more important topics to be included. Even granting the discrimination of the
investigator, the significance of material obtained in this way is likely to be limited.

* op. cit.

® Ghas. Madge, “War-time Saving and Spending,” Econ. Jnl.y vol. xii, 1938-9,
PP* 327-9*

THE URBAN COMMUNITY

17

12. The Chicago School

In very general terms the American point of view and
methodology is perhaps best expressed by C. R. Shaw, a
prominent member of the Chicago Sociological School, whose
studies of delinquency provide an effective counterpart to the
earlier work of Burt in this country. “Behaviour can be studied
profitably in terms of the situation out of which it arises; in other
words, behaviour responses can be thought of as functions of
situation.”^ In terms of the urban community, other Chicago
sociologists and their imitators interpret this approach in various
ways, some of which were mentioned at the beginning of this
chapter. The “ecologists”,^ in particular, postulate that the
study of behaviour in the city involves consideration of various
competitive and economic processes which in turn are responsible
for the production of “natural areas”, and for the segregation
in them of the urban population. These areas are also community
areas, but they are cultural and not social units, since their
inhabitants engage in “no common group of activities out of
which may grow a common body of experience and a common set
of traditions and attitudes”, which is the sine qua non of community
life and collective action. Members of such communities are
sorted out and segregated there by the more subtle processes which
determine the utilisation of land and fix the amount of rents.
These processes, in turn, are the criteria which decide both the
nature and the location of the community area, and each such
area contains people alike in their general habits and customs,
but subject to a greater or less degree of individuation of personal
behaviour. ^

Put briefly, the kernel of the “ecological” thesis is that an
urban survey, as distinct from that of a village, means the study

^ cf. H. W. Zorbaugh, op, cit., p. 231. “The structure of the individual city then
... is built about this framework of transportation, business organization and
industry, park and boulevard systems and topographical features. All these tend to
break up the city into numerous smaller areas, which we may call natural areas, in that
they are unplanned, natural products of the city’s growth.”

^ The use of this term is justified by Lundberg and Petersen ( Trends in American
Sociology, p. 279) in the following words:

“The plant or animal ecologist studies the organism in its relation to the environ-
ment, watching it behave and noting what affects its behaviour. Finding so many
parallels, the (student of human communities has ventured to ‘lift’ much of the
vocabulary of plant and animal ecology,”

^ Compare also R. E. Park, “Suggestions for the Study of Behaviour in the Urban
Environment,” op, cit,, pp. 6 and I2,

2

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

l8

of a number of separate communities — communities within a
greater community — and is complicated by the exaggerated
mobility of the city, its diversity of occupations and vocations, and
the unlikelihood of any communal action except in the political
and administrative sense. Positively, therefore, the study of
behaviour in the city — as a function of the peculiar elements of
an urban environment — becomes largely a study of the features
which most affect it, such as economic competition, transport
facilities, and technical and technological changes.^ Zorbaugh,
in his Gold Coast and Slum, accepts this, but lays, or appears to
lay, greater stress on the cultural conception of the “natural
area”. The methodology of his survey of the Chicago Near North
Side, comprising some 90,000 inhabitants, proceeds ex hypothesi
from the latter angle. It provides a suggestive rather than a
convincing approach, and is more valuable as an illumination
of contemporary American morals than as a fresh method of
analysis.^ A few quotations will make this judgment clearer.

One of these “natural areas” comprises the Rooming House
quarter, inhabited mostly by young and adventurous people
who have come to the city to seek their fortunes. Here the
transitory nature of city life is at least as marked as anywhere
else; for presently these people will move to take their places
somewhere in the broad cadre of occupations offered by the city,
becoming incorporated into the social and economic order about
them. “Towertown” is another such community. It is the
bohemian or Latin quarter; its inhabitants are mainly artists
and students, those who seek a “bohemian” life. This area
supports most of the little theatres, the smart bookshops, and the
bohemian and radical clubs. There is everywhere an atmosphere
of dilettantism and emotional empiricism.

This kind of classification exemplifies, though with bare
justice, Zorbaugh’s approach to his subject, which is essentially
descriptive, at times intuitive, and to a certain extent typological

^ cf. M. A. Alihan, Social Ecology {passim), who offers a fairly extensive commentary
on the work of this school. “Competition,” he writes, “then emerges as a key to the
understanding of the concept ‘community’; it is thought of by the ecologists as the
most fundamental process in human organization and ‘community’ is regarded as its
product.” It is the view of this commentator that Park stresses the biological signific-
ance of the concept, whereas McKenzie leans towards an essentially economic
interpretation (p. 29).

^ Such studies as Alihan mentions of other members of the school, such as
Thrasher, Cavan, and Petersen, stand on their own merits as general sociological
rather than specifically ecological works.

THE URBAN COMMUNITY IQ

in the manner of the English and American personahty study
schools.^ The investigators of the New London Survey classify
“natural areas” in terms of income, Zorbaugh in terms of customs
and ways of behaving, sometimes arbitrarily defined. Perhaps
the greatest merit of the study consists in its very ample docu-
mentation and its description of leisure-class manners — a subject
virtually neglected as such in British social studies since the days
of Mayhew. ^ As a survey in the conventional sense of the word,
Zorbaugh’s work departs from many of the usual canons, for
reasons already mentioned; it is less of a survey of a city
community than a series of community surveys. Relatively
speaking, the quantitative material offered is small in extent,
and much of it, in terms of pin-pointed maps, seems to be
advanced mainly to support his cultural hypothesis. Zorbaugh’s
canvas, however, is a wide one, and the extensive use he makes
of biographical and othey documentary records is responsible
for the somewhat “atmospheric”, even literary, impression which
it gives. ^ At the same time, it would be unfair to suggest that
his broader sociological conclusions are necessarily invalidated
by the seeming facility of this description and typification. Given
the rather arbitrary basis of his approach, he makes a number of
shrewd observations in regard to the “dynamic” aspects of the
society in question. Moreover, so far as the detection of social
motives and cultural patterns is concerned, it might well be
argued from this study that the restrictions imposed by a quantita-
tive approach cause far more to be lost in empiricism than is
gained in exactitude.

^ In the anthropological sense it might be fair to include it in the same species
as the work of Benedict and other members of the “Culture patterns’* school. On
the other hand, it has to be remembered that convergence in this respect occurs
more in terms of effect than of purpose.

^ Zorbaugh’s description of the “Social Ritual”, in particular, seems to be based
on some first-class biographical material, see op, cit., p. 57 et seq.

^ Compare amongst other similar passages the following description of the “Slum”:

“Dirty and narrow streets, alleys piled high with refuse and alive with dogs and
cats, goats hitched to carts, bleak tenements, the smoke of industry hanging in a haze,
the marker along the curb, foreign names on shops and foreign faces in the streets,
the dissonant cry of the huckster and peddlar, the clanging and rattling of railroads
and the elevator, the pealing of bells of the great Catholic churches, the music of
marching bands and the crackling of fireworks on feast days, the occasional dull
boom of a bomb, or the bark of a revolver, the shouts of children at play in the streets,
a strange staccato speech, the taste of soot, and the smell of the gas from the huge
‘gas house’.”

The only reasonable parallel in British sociological literature is, perhaps, H.
Mayhew’s London Labour and the London Poor published in 1861 (Griffin Bohn) in
4 volumes.

20

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

13. “Middletown”

A few comments on the well-known Middletown survey will
complete this very brief review of American methodology. Robert
and Helen Lynd, who carried out this study of “contemporary
American culture”, had the help of a number of trained assistants,
and selected a city which, having many features in common
with a wide group of communities, provided an opportunity of
observing synchronously the trends of life in small American
cities. The fundamental aim was to record observed phenomena,
and thereby to raise questions and suggest possible fresh points of
departure in the study of group behaviour. In view of the
multifarious nature of the problem, attention was paid mainly
to a few major lines of activity, basic to human society in general,
i.e. getting a living; making a home; training the young; using
leisure in various forms of play, art, etc.; engaging in religious
practices; and community activities. The Lynds’ avowed
methodology is essentially anthropological both in theoretical
approach and in the practical task of amassing data. It was
necessary to view their culture in terms of its present functional
aspect, and to postulate and reconstruct something of its historical
background, so as to provide a basis for comparison with its
present nature and a means of tracing and assessing certain
developmental elements in its existing pattern.

A summary of the findings in respect of the first activity
specified will suffice to illustrate the descriptive and analytical
approach. The dominance of getting a living as a cultural
factor is shown in percentage terms of the entire community.
The working group is divided into two arbitrarily defined sections,
the working class and the business class. The former address
their activities to things, e.g. by applying tools to materials; the
latter to persons, e.g. by selling ideas, things and services. The
hours of work are considered, and the economic implications
of the age-group, both in terms of increasing or decreasing
prosperity and in professional and occupational preferences.
There are further data regarding the working population, their
intellectual capacity, their provenance, and their degree of
emigration. After the manufacturing processes and the part the
individual plays in them and in the commercial or business

THE URBAN COMMUNITY

21

life have been considered, further information shows some of the
trends and changes in the nature and tempo of economic activity,
and the extent of vocational selection. The times at which the
different sections of the community rise, the hours they work,
the implications of day and night work, and the psychological
attitudes and tendencies which respond to technological change,
unemployment, etc., are shown in terms of personal routine,
habits, clothing, food, the question of wives taking employment,
the renting of cheaper houses, etc. Finally, the cost of living, and
the earnings by age and occupation are assessed, and a descriptive
estimate given of the implications of the economic activity and its
fruits in terms of social status and prestige. The other five main
“trunk” activities are dealt with in similar fashion.

Although this brief summary necessarily emphasises the
factual nature of the Lynds’ approach, it does not overestimate
the deliberate and extensive accumulation of social “facts” which
is perhaps the most striking characteristic of the survey. Data
of the documentary kind ranged from the census and trade
reports to the popular magazine and daily newspapers. Much use
was made of the formal interview, largely of a type hardly distinct
from the technique of journalism. Individuals would be selected
as random samples, the purpose of the investigators frankly
revealed to them and an appointment made — more often with
the higher income groups, for much of the indirect information
was apparently gathered from housewives and others in the
working-class group. A wide use was made of the questionnaire,
not only to obtain purely factual information, but to invite
the recipients to co-operate in assessing numerous psychological
attitudes and sentiments in their own lives.

This methodology must be considered in terms of its purpose.
It was aimed, in the Lynds’ own words, at the integration of
diverse regimes of behaviour rather than at the discovery of new
material in a narrowly isolated field. The survey dealt with some
30,000 people living in a highly industrialised environment.
The approach was factual, and the technique of enquiry mainly
direct once the situation had been anthropologically resolved.
The result provides a picture which is both historical and socio-
logical. It tells us more about what things people do and what
opinions they hold than about why they do them or hold them.
It tells us what changes have taken place in the last generation

22

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

or so; for example, work is still sought under the laissez-faire
system of the last century, whereas in another aspect of the
economic field, the technique of the present century is used to
persuade the citizens to purchase goods. But we are not told why
this discrepancy exists. In some respects, therefore, the Lynd
methodology is not dissimilar from that used in the London
surveys. The results of the respective studies, however, belie
any such comparison. Middletown is contextual enough and
provides enough social material to allow of reasonable deductions
as to cultural factors and influences. The limitations of the
British work in this respect have already been pointed out.

14. Summary and Conclusions

A few tentative remarks only are needed to conclude this
short examination of survey methods. The relation of the
methodology to the problem studied is of fundamental
importance, and has been illustrated by most of the instances
quoted. On the other hand, the validity of the methodological
modus operandi, a derivative of the general approach, is difficult
to estimate except from a rather full consideration of a given
problem. Quantitative methods are, perhaps, less open to suspi-
cion than any other, but even here there are pitfalls. A careful
and unimpeachable statistical analysis of economic data does not
necessarily and of itself give statistical results the status of social
facts. Nor are conclusions arrived at by the collection of seemingly
straightforward household material — the family budget is a good
example — always as valid as their formulators sometimes seem
to imagine. It is doubtful if the direct method always evokes
reliable information on various practices less socially approved,
such as drinking, gambling, and illicit sexual behaviour. Yet in
the small income such items may be significant.^ This does not
at all mean that direct questioning should be deprecated. When
the information required can be obtained directly, it is mere

^ For example, in some of the “poorer” districts of Merseyside, so the writer is
informed, it was the practice of the young worker regularly to hold back a shilling
or two of his weekly earnings for the satisfaction of his sexual urges. The act and the
transaction would be casual and informal and take place in one of the back entries
or alleys with which thb particular district is honeycombed. It is equally doubtful
if anything like a correct estimate has been made of weekly expenditure on various
kinds of gambling of the casual as well as the institutionalized kind.

THE URBAN COMMUNITY

23

affectation, as well as a considerable and unnecessary labour, to
obtain it in any other way. In the large-scale enquiry, and
where the application of statistical methods is envisag^, the
direct approach is necessary as well as economical, but it should
never be thought of as sufficient in itself. It requires supplement-
ing by less ostentatious checks, by ear and by eye as well as by
verbal enquiry, and even by deduction from other known or
observable material. In so far as the primary obligation of
the investigator is to provide as accurate a description as possible
of the community studied, every method bearing on this end
has its appropriate place as well as its limitations. The question-
naire, for example, is likely to shed more light on group opinions
and attitudes at a given time than on the factors and forces which
motivate or modify them. The very literacy of the urban com-
munity, which makes it in some ways more amenable to approach
than the pre-literate society, conceals complexities which corres-
pondingly can be over-simplified, and may require a quite
elaborate psychological technique for their disentanglement. ^

In the urban field, the investigator is confronted with situa-
tions, with problems, and not least with individual persons whose
understanding and manipulation require a degree of tact, skill
and practical experience far beyond the compass of mere academic
learning. If special training and a facility for making contacts
are regarded as a prerequisite for work in the anthropological
field, they should be held no less necessary and essential qualifica-
tions for sociological research. Special knowledge in the latter
case may, or may not, mean a close familiarity with sociological
theory; it should certainly include some kind of relevant vocational
experience of life, ^ and a considerable amount of pre-knowledge

^ Several suggestions on socio-psychological lines have been made by G. F.
Bartlett. One is the story whose denouement is supplied by members of the audience
to whom it is told. An extension of this technique, and one which offers wide if
rather cumbersome possibilities of group treatment, has been tried by H. Carmichael.
A situation possessing some highly dramatic or controversial quality is put forward
in a literary form and the subjects are asked to suggest various lines of action which
the characters in it might take, and to state what factors in the situation are likely to
play most part in its development.

The purpose of both these techniques seems to be an elementary form of “psycho-
analysis” on a wide scale with the object of estimating the relative importance of
various cultural factors and considerations in the minds of the groups investigated,
and hence, presumably, their “objective” significance in a given society. The possi-
bilities of the latter technique, except in a much cruder form, would seem to be
restricted to a highly literate and relatively sophisticated section of the community.

^ More concretely, the sociologist should have had at least a few years’ experience
of earning a living in a non-academic sphere. Ideally, such experience should provide

24

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

of all sections of one’s own society. Whether or not the anthro-
pologist sent to investigate a culture alien to his own can dispense
with the latter is perhaps arguable; for the sociologist it is a
sine qua non.

Finally, in the urban environment of modern society, the
investigator should remember that he is dealing with concepts
and problems whose shape and meaning are constantly changing,
and consequently are in continuous need of re-definition and of
an approach and a methodology as “dynamic” in quality as the
subject of his study.

the kind of training most useful to him in his subsequent sociological field-work.
The role of a newspaper reporter (advocated by the late Professor R. E. Park and
actually adopted by some of his students) immediately suggests itself, and that of a
salesman of the door-to-door category seems to offer equal if not better opportunities
of practice in the “art” of approaching and rapidly “sizing up” individuals and social
situations.

PART I

THE COLOURED FOLK OF CARDIFF

CHAPTER 2

FIELD WORK METHODS
I. The Resolution of the Problem

The Community Survey with which this book is concerned
covers the coloured population of a large Welsh seaport city,
mainly made up of the families of African, West Indian, and
Arab seamen. In respect to the small size of the community
covered (some 7,000 persons at the outside) the survey differs
markedly from most of the studies reviewed in the introductory
chapter, but the essential qualifications of a community as
sociologically defined are satisfactorily fulfilled. The people
concerned inhabit an area within the city limits of about one
square mile in extent, and by their occupational background as
well as by their racial, psychological, and geographical separation
from the rest of the city may be regarded as sharing a common
body of experience.

The purely methodological problem which arises out of this
situation is at once simple and complex. It is simple in that the
demarcation of the coloured people from the rest of the city’s
inhabitants is obvious from nearly every angle. It is complex
in that this community in its urban-dwelling and seafaring
aspects shares to no small extent the occupational experiences,
attitudes, outlook, and even the sentiments of the larger labouring
class of which it is a part, and from which at the same time it is
distinguished by race, and a fairly wide variety of language,
religion and social custom. In other words, are we to look upon
the problem as one of behaviour in an urban environment and
no more; or as a study in race relations; or, indeed, as both?

After some empirical enquiry and consideration it was
found that the most satisfactory way of meeting these rather
comprehensive demands was to approach them from three angles;
in terms of (a) the historical antecedents and occupational

2 *

as

26

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

background of the community, (b) its social structure and
general sociology, and (c) its relationship to and its position
as part of the surrounding matrix of the larger British society.
So far as (a) is concerned, the material was obtained mainly in
documentary form. Reports of industrial surveys, contemporary
literature, Cardiff City Council reports, newspaper files, records
and reports on the shipping industry, and the publications and
files of the League of Coloured Peoples provided a substantial
basis for the writer’s own empirical knowledge of factors and
conditions. The compilation of material on (b) called for the
assembly of relevant social and economic data relating to the
community and its environment. These data were obtained
“in the field” almost entirely by means of anthropological
methods of enquiry (see below). In (c), a much wider question
is involved, and one which calls for a combination of all the above
methods. It is a matter of deciding how far the sociology of the
community has been and is affected by the cultural influences of
British society, especially those of Cardiff itself. Such a con-
sideration involved examining the British cultural heritage,
more particularly in respect of popular attitudes and sentiments
on the subject of coloured people and colour prejudice. It was
soon found that the latter aspect, in particular — colour prejudice
and its concomitants — played so large a part in shaping the
general sociological situation, that it demanded more than a
superficial explanation. This, in turn, called for further field
work, in addition to the use of documentary material and con-
temporary literature, and included the use of questionnaires,
the personal experiences and observations of the writer in lectur-
ing and talking to some two dozen male and female Service, units,
further enquiries by W.E.A. students, acting on the writer’s
instructions and suggestions, and his own periodic contacts with
coloured communities in other parts of the country, in Liverpool,
London, and Hull, and with the voluntary organizations serving
them.

2. Technique of Enquiry

It may be of interest briefly to compare the general technique
of enquiry used in this investigation with the methods discussed

FIELD WORK METHODS 27

in the previous chapter. One of the more important, if less
obvious, disadvantages which the anthropologist working in
Western society has to surmount is the fact that his subjects are
out of sight for a large part of the day behind the walls of houses,
offices, etc. In most pre-literate societies, everyday life is lived
very much more in public. In the case of Loudoun Square,
however, there was some compensation for this in view of the
habit of the menfolk, in particular, of using the streets as a social
centre. On the other hand, as succeeding chapters should show,
there were reasons additional to the conventional ones which
made the task of sociological enquiry into the coloured quarter
of Cardiff a difficult one, an undertaking not to be attempted
successfully in any official capacity. The main reason for this
is the community’s bitter memory of its clashes with the towns-
people, and of individual struggles to make a living in the face
of white competition and opposition. ^ The community has been
subjected to one or two previous “surveys”, and not a little
journalistic inquiry and comment, some of it undoubtedly
malicious.^ References to the latter will be found in this study.
On the whole, therefore, bearing in mind the history and recent
experiences of the community, it is in no way surprising that
inquisitive strangers should be regarded with suspicion. Unless
he is already accredited in some way, a white man in the district
may be looked upon with as much dislike as, and sometimes
considerably more suspicion than, a coloured man is by members
of the white public in an up-town area of the city. This matter
obviously needs further clarification and some qualification, but

^ cf. Western Mail, Cardiff, April, 1936. “The coloured folk of Cardiff are patient
and cheerful.” “By Our Own Reporter,” and the Daily Express, July, 1936. “No
Mean Cities of Britain, No, ii, Cardiff” with the sub-title: “Half-Caste Girl: she
presents a city with one of its big problems.”

Significantly enough, a good deal of this literature is by no means unsympathetic,
even though it is sometimes lacking in perspicuity. Note the following:

“The coloured man is a good father to his half-caste children — all of them,
ironically enough, are British-born subjects — and is proud of them. . . .”

“The half-caste boys have a poor chance of employment, their sisters have
practically none. White girls will not work alongside coloured girls, and the half-
caste girls themselves are not eager for work.”

“The negro, darkly statuesque, implores the sky over dockland, ‘Lord, why is my
name Ishmael? Why is every man^s hand against me?’ ”

^ Personal resistance to the approaches of white people showed itself in several ways,
for example, as unwillingness to co-operate with them. One coloured “die-hard”
mentioned to the writer that his own strong objection to mixed marriages (as one
form of co-operation) was that marrying a white woman had a somewhat “bad
effect” on a coloured man, “It made him more ‘white’ in his attitude.”

28

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

it is a prefatory methodological point of some importance,^
and one with which the writer himself was faced. It so happened
that during the period of the enquiry he was invited by the Sons
of Africa, the largest Negro association in the district, to address
a general meeting of the community on the subject of an educa-
tional scheme for the benefit of the children. In the course of his
talk, he suggested that possible sources of employment lay
abroad in the Colonies, having in mind more particularly the
existence of strong prejudice against coloured juveniles in Cardiff.
His whole speech, as well as the suggestion itself, was at once
interpreted, by almost every coloured man in the room who
spoke in comment on it, as a proposal with sinister and ulterior
implications, to secure the removal of the coloured people back
to the Colonies. This reception - illustrated very clearly not only
the existence of a considerable depth of resentment, but also
the necessity for the investigator to get to know as much as possible
of the historical antecedents of the sociological scheme before
setting out to analyse it in its contemporary form.

In the present case, for example, he would be wise to have
information ready to hand on various incidents and events of

^ A contemporary novelist makes the same point in the following words:

“I said that I set out to explore Bute Town. I mean, of course, that I set out to
explore the surface of it. The white man desirous of penetrating to the real Bute
Town has a harder task before him than ever faced Livingstone. Unlike the East
End of London, an adventurous tourist cannot view in Cardiff — with occasional dull
exceptions — the fan-tan dens, the haunts of the opium-smokers, and the houses where
the presence of white women would rouse all the sense of outrage within him. But
the coloured man, even though he may not have set foot in Cardiff before, is at once
on as familiar terms with Bute Town as he is with Shanghai, Port Said, or Kingston,
Jamaica.

“The mate was giving an example of this free masonic wonder at lunch-time.
Ten black firemen had been signed on for a past voyage of his. The ship was to sail
in the morning. At the last moment, it was decided that she should leave twelve
hours earlier and the mate was ordered to scour Bute Town in an attempt to round
up the ten. Despite his explanation, he was met at every place he visited with the
same reception: none of the names he mentioned was known. At last he chanced upon
one of the crew in the street, and informc'd him of the circumstances. He was taken
back to the very spots from which he had been turned away, and in less than an hour
the whole ten had been collected.” t^T. G. B. Clarke, Go South— Go West, }o\\n Long,
London, 1932.

2 So hostile was the reception that a member of the Society sponsoring the
meeting afterwards admitted to the writer that the main reason why he and other
officials on the platform said so little in support of the suggestion was because they
feared their Society would incur a like odium and misunderstanding. He confessed
himself somewhat surprised and very disappointed at the result, but it was better in
the circumstances, as he frankly pointed out, “that you should appear as the scape-
goat”. This remark, however, as well as the event itself, has to be understood in terms
of other political happenings in the community, to which reference is made in thg
section on Sociology under the sub-heading of Social and Political Control (p. 134).

FIELD WORK METHODS

29

the 1919 racial riots; to appreciate thoroughly all the ramifica-
tions of the Aliens’ Order and Shipping Subsidy controversy
(See below, pp. 63^.); and, perhaps above all, to remove any
suspicion that unwelcome publicity will follow closely on his
visit. The community as a whole is under no misapprehension
as to what a large portion of the town thinks of it, and is corres-
pondingly resentful of any unwarranted attempt to pry into its
affairs.

3. The Making of Contacts

From the purely technical point of view, therefore, the initial
problem was that of making contacts, and contacts of the most
profitable kind, since it was obvious even at the outset that any
formal declaration of a sociological purpose would be met with
considerable suspicion, and even active antagonism. Partly on
this account, and partly for more conventional anthropological
reasons, it was decided that little would be gained in the early
stages of the inquiry by using the more or less direct methods of
procedure, which, in this country, appear to have been the almost
inevitable practice. Fortunately, a useful medium of contact
was already available in the form of an anthropometric study
of the “mixed” children, which the writer had official permission
to carry out at the largest school in the district. This procedure
in itself was by no means ideal as an entree, ^ but it did at least
afford an opportunity of gaining further introductions besides —
what in the circumstances was extremely important — providing
some explanation for the presence of a patently alien figure. “

^ Mainly because of popular hearsay regarding the results of racial mixture. It
was thought (and publicly suggested) by some of the coloured men that the anthro-
pometry was an insidious, though not clearly understood, attempt to discredit them
through their children. Much the same view seemed to be held by numbers of the
older “mixed” boys and girls at the same time as they gave quite friendly co-operation.
One of the older men summed up the fairly general reaction of those who took any
interest in the matter by asking “What is it that makes us any different from anyone
else?”

^ If enough time is available, the writer is strongly of opinion that investigators
of this type of situation should seek to “participate” thoroughly in the community
concerned. It should not be necessary in the present instance, for example, for the
investigator to take on the full role of a seaman, but he should certainly fulfil some
position which is meaningful in the eyes of a seafaring community. He would learn
a great deal in the capacity of a trades union or welfare official, but perhaps most of all
as a helper in a boarding house. A coloured man, if educated, would not necessarily
be less suspect than a white individual of similar class, though he would undoubtedly
find superficial access to the community much easier than would the latter.

30

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

By these means, and by further introductions from one of the
inhabitants of the district, the preliminary stages of contact,
inquiry, and observation were undertaken as unostentatiously
as possible. The investigators, namely the writer and his wife,
were aided in their initial exploration by some slight knowledge
of two African languages (though, unfortunately, not of Arabic),
and West African customs and politics, and thus were able fairly
soon to establish a reasonable basis of understanding and confi-
dence. Visits were paid consistently, as far as was practicable, to
all social and public functions in the district, e.g., weddings,
meetings of men’s and boys’ clubs, churches, public houses, the
local air raid warden’s post, cafes, shops, etc.; and conversations
were sought with as wide an assortment of persons as possible.
Those interviewed included not only the coloured members
of the community, their wives and children, but also quasi-
members, such as school teachers, clergy, and persons belonging
to other social classes and living in other parts of the city. At
the same time, an attempt was made to obtain some quantitative
estimation of such factors as rent, domestic budgeting, size and
type of house, and other general amenities. The technique
ranged from direct questioning to the giving of a short talk on
Danish household management by the writer’s wife under the
auspices of one of the women’s clubs, and further talks by the
writer to various assemblies of the men on scientific and other
topics. ^ By these means, it was possible to gain a fairly concrete
conception of the very varied sociology of the community, and
of the main trend of its attitudes and interests. Data were checked,
as far as possible, by further direct and indirect questioning. As
will be clear, the process as a whole was one which required
very careful handling, as much after recognition had been
won as at the beginning. This was owing rather to factionalism
than any other reason. Personal and group prejudices were
almost as marked among some of the white residents in the
district as among the more obviously divergent coloured sections.
The small size of the community and its even more restricted
geographical dimensions made movement from group to group
or from house to house awkward at times and on occasions
clandestine, and required a considerable amount of forethought

^ A relatively large proportion of questions coming to the writer as a result of
his own talks on anthropological topics related directly to the question of racial
superiority and inferiority.

FIELD WORK METHODS

31

in terms of appointments and public appearances. To achieve a
satisfactory condition of rapport with all concerned, whilst avoid-
ing at the same time the outward signs of affiliation with any, is
not a simple task, particularly when it is evident that true and
objective neutrality may win from everyone a modicum of respect,
but from none actual confidence.

4. The Nature of the Interview

In general, therefore, the technique adopted was deliberately
indirect in character, both in the making of contacts and in
eliciting the information required. For example, in the course
of an interview, particularly in the early stages of the inquiry,
it was always sought to lead the conversation towards
the subject in view rather than to introduce it directly. This
procedure was not always easy or practicable, partly owing to
some lack of English on the part of some of the persons inter-
viewed, partly owing to the investigator’s ignorance of their
languages, and it led not infrequently to redundance and re-
petitive analogy, although even this occasionally served a purpose
in denoting some point of particular interest to the speaker and
his group. Interest was sometimes stimulated by reference to
some well-known topic, such as the Colour Bar itself, or to some
controversial personality in the district, whilst reference to one’s
own social background and interests served a certain though
limited purpose.

In general, the investigators found a strong vein of friendliness
amongst the individuals concerned, whether African, West
Indian, White, Arab or “mixed blood”. This was all the more
apparent when the persons in question felt assured of a
sympathetic interest in their affairs, and it is a point which is
strongly endorsed by other people who have had any length of
sympathetic contact with the district. As will become more
obvious from the subsequent sociological analysis, one of the main
complaints of the coloured Loudoun Square inhabitant is that
he is looked upon as something of an oddity by the world out-
side.^ This is perhaps already sufficiently evident amongst the

^ To quote one of the West Indians: “Soho is the sort of place where anything
might happen and no one takes any particular notice of it; but if it happens here
there’s a A^/Z-of-a-baloo.”

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

32

educated class of coloured people in this country, but it is interest-
ing, though not altogether surprising, to find that the far less
well-equipped type of coloured man is hardly less resentful of, and
is certainly as much alive to, all the implications of colour
prejudice and its concomitants. So far as the present inquiry is
concerned, this point quite obviously constituted the greatest
barrier to progress. Once it had been successfully broken down,
however, confidence flowed more normally, and by the end of
the study it was possible to reveal something of the real purpose
of the investigator’s presence, and to ask for material assistance. ^
Apart from investigation within the community, a certain
amount of field work was carried out in the city itself. Reference
to calls at hotels and boarding houses is made elsewhere. In
addition, in the course of assembling various statistical and other
relevant data from the appropriate quarters, such as Public
Assistance, Unemployment Assistance Board, Sanitation, Public
Health, Housing, Police, Probation, and Education officials,
and the local branches of the Seamen’s Union and Ministry of
Labour, an effort was made to estimate the nature of the city’s
official attitude towards the coloured folk. Such occasions require
a more refined technique. The role of the caller as an investigator
of social conditions is known, and there is a corresponding
tendency to “resistance” on the part of the person interviewed.
Often, he inclines either to give an answer which is “required”,
or to act defensively in his own interest or that of his department. “
It is a situation which requires careful psychological treatment
and on which it is difficult to lay down any law. In his own
case, the writer found that the technique of stimulated astonish-
ment and alternate agreement and disagreement paid the best
dividends;^ in one or two cases conclusions came to light which

^ It is perhaps unnecessary to add that the problem had to be stated from a
utilitarian angle. The average coloured person is as incapable as the average white
man of seeing why anyone should be interested in studying a problem, least of all a
human and social one, for its own sake alone.

^ That this was sometimes actually the case was admitted by one official in the
course of a discussion on the local colour bar. Speaking unofficially, he said that there
was a certain amount of prejudice against coloured men using certain premises, but
that, he was careful to add, would not be his official reply.

^ cf. Julian Blackburn, Sociological Review, Oct. 1941, “The Psychology of the
Interview,” which offers a comprehensive comment on this question. Note the follow-
ing:—

“Among the conversational techniques recommended by Oldfield we find the
following; (i) Agreement with the candidate’s views. This serves to lessen the inevit-
able initial barriers. (2) Disagreement may also be subtlv used. If it is only partial

FIELD WORK METHODS

33

were almost diametrically opposed to the original sentiments
and views of the person interviewed. These examples and
experiences tend to endorse the opinion expressed at the end of
the last chapter — that the making of sociological enquiries,
whether the technique be termed anthropological or not, is a
matter requiring trained and technical preparation on the part
of its exponents.

In the broader field, outside the actual Cardiff survey, the
writer adopted as far as possible the same indirect method of
enquiry. In several cases, however, it was possible to reveal the
full purpose of his investigations without prejudice to the work,
and a number of useful autobiographies and other documentary
material were obtained as a result. In seeking autobiographical
matter, particularly from coloured subjects, the writer asked
simply for an essay or account of the individual’s experiences
and impressions of England and of English people. In his
approach to Service units, to whom he had the opportunity of
speaking under the auspices of the Cambridge Committee for
Adult Education in H.M. Forces, he delivered as far as possible
the same talk, or a modification of it, dealing with the social
implications of Anglo- Colonial relations. Questions were then
invited and a discussion followed, with results whose methodo-
logical value varied considerably; it was obvious, in some
instances, that the general “atmosphere” was conditioned
substantially either by the known views of certain officers or by a
prevailing “Left Wing” group of sentiments.

CHAPTER 3

MARITIME SETTING OF THE COMMUNITY

The community of coloured folk with which we are concerned
lives in the dock area of Cardiff, in the district known as Bute
Town. The greater part of them are to be found in the southern

the candidate’s independence may be tested without his being exposed to the full
strain of total opposition. (3) Surprise and astonishment may be used to improve
rapporty as may also the treatment of the candidate’s arguments with due seriousness.”
Quoting Oldfield again, Blackburn concludes: “During the interview, the inter-
viewer ought to think and act in terms of attitudes. Never mind what the candidate
says; notice the way he says it. Don’t try to make the correct remark; think instead
of the appropriate attitude to take up, and a suitable form of words will be forthcoming.”

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

34

half of the Adamsdown Ward of the city, but a further repre-
sentative section lives in the adjacent South Ward. There are
a few more coloured families in the centre of the city area, and
a few live in other working-class districts, such as Splott, or in
suburbs, such as Cathays and Roath. Taking the city as a whole,
however, it would probably be true to say that some 95 per cent,
live in the special area indicated on the attached map (facing p. 32).

I. Mercantile Significance of Cardiff

Cardiff in 1938 had a population of some 228,000. The
growth of the city, ^ and the prosperity which came to it during
the latter part of the last century, was largely due to its position
as a very important coaling and coal-exporting port, and to its
mercantile trade as a whole. Cardiff’s industries profited from
a far-sighted and adequate programme of rail and dock amenities,
including the Taff Vale Railway, constructed as early as 1841,
the South Wales Railway (subsequently merged into the G.W.R.
system), the West and East Bute Docks, and the Rhymney
Railway, completed about i860, to link up with another rich
section of the South Wales coalfield. The Roath Basin and Roath
Dock followed in 1887, and shortly afterwards large timber
yards were constructed in connection with the canal dock of the
Glamorganshire Canal, recently acquired by the Bute trustees.
By this time the total deadweight inwards and outwards had
risen to eight and a quarter million tons to be dealt with at the
Bute Docks alone. ^

The establishment of a dry dock system and ship-repairing
yards, a patent fuel industry, and the construction of the Dowlais
(Cardiff) blast furnaces with an import of some 700,000 tons
of iron ore in a single year, contributed further to Cardiff’s
position of mercantile eminence before the First World War.
The registered net tonnage of vessels cleared from the port with
cargoes and in ballast rose from just over i million tons in 1857
to 12.6 million in pre-1914 days, and departures with cargoes
for foreign destinations reached a larger tonnage than those at

very striking one when it is recalled that in i8oi the population was only
about 1,000, and in 1838, only some 10,000.

* cf. Wales and Monmouthshire, “The Story of Cardiff”. The latest addition to the
Cardiff Docks was opened in 1 907 and named the Queen Alexandra Dock.

MARITIME SETTING OF THE COMMUNITY 35

either Liverpool or London, the only ports providing a larger
market for the employment of coasting and foreign-going ships.
Despite the severe shipping depression in the period between the
two wars, the port has continued its imports of iron ore, fruit,
vegetables, pitwood and grain provisions and its exports of coal,
coke, patent fuel and flour, though on a diminished scale.

2. Cardiff and the Tramp Trade

Situated on the Bristol Channel, the city has the benefit of the
prevailing south-west winds of the region, and of a mild climate
all the year round. This may be one reason why so many of the
coloured seamen have chosen it as a home port to which they
persist in returning, at whatever other port of the United Kingdom
they are discharged. It is more probable, however, that the
conditions of the shipping industry itself are the deciding factor.
The fact that Cardiff is one of the main centres of the tramp trade
means that a seaman, whether white or coloured, by residing
there, is in closest touch with this form of employment. ^

3. The Shipping Industry and the Unions

Perhaps it is from this occupational point of view that we
should approach the history of the coloured community itself,
for to a large extent their experiences and fortunes as a group are
not very dissimilar to those of the wider seafaring class to which
the greater proportion of them belong. So far as Cardiff is
concerned the first decade of the present century will provide
a convenient starting-point.

In 19 1 1 the great national strike of seamen took place,
inspired and organised by Havelock Wilson and other originators
of the movement for a national union. The strike, an event
of very great industrial importance, arose out of the seamen’s
growing consciousness of their right to industrial recognition,
their burning grievances of low wages and deplorable conditions
of labour and livelihood. The employment of foreign seamen

^ The pros and cons of tramp employment are worth a brief comment. The
tramp secures a longer voyage than a liner, but has the disadvantage (if it be so
considered) of offering no permanence of job. Liner routes, on the other hand, are
necessarily less casual in their demands.

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

36

in British ships provided Wilson and his colleagues with another
important target of attack in their early struggles. They argued
that British owners were deliberately discharging British hands
abroad on trumped-up charges and replacing them with lower-
paid foreign labour, and that British seamen were obliged to
sign on again at home at lower rates to get any livelihood at all. ^
The implications of this complaint were equally cogent. An
industry manned by a heterogeneous collection of nationalities
was incapable of cohesion and therefore of organisation, ^ which,
so far as all seamen serving in British ships were concerned,
was Wilson’s objective. In any case he succeeded. Between
i8go and 1903, the foreign seamen in British ships had been
increasing from 27,000 to 40,000, while the number of British
seamen had actually decreased by 10,000. By 1912, however,
there had been an increase of some 30,000 British seamen and a
reduction of foreigners by 9,000.^ During the subsequent war
the unions managed to ensure that an alien employed on a
British ship must be paid at British rates, and this ruling was
continued under the auspices of the National Maritime Board,
but it applied only to crews signed on at home ports or on
European articles.'* In effect, in the shape of Asiatic and “Lascar”

^ cf. Seamen's Torch: Life Story of Captain Tapper, 191 1, pp. 20-22. “In those days
hundreds of ships signed on or off in Antwerp, Rotterdam, or any other port, where
pay was low. Germans, Scandinavians, Poles, Finns, signed articles under the Red
Ensign, and stayed in the British merchant service. The British had to accept their
low standards to get a livelihood at all. And in those days the owner would pay off
his crew where he liked and leave them to find their way home as best they could;
they signed on again, of course they had to.”

The substance of this complaint has provided the main industrial contention in
disputes between owners and unions right up to the present day (see later section of
this chapter and chapter 4) .

^ ibid, “I want to explain that there were other obstacles to forming one solid
body of these men, with a representative body which could fairly and decently put
their grievances to their employers* representatives. The men of the Tyne, say, had
in many respects a different sense of values from the men of the Mersey, or Southamp-
ton Water. Even now a ship owner would avoid putting a mixed crew of Liverpool
and Southampton on a big ship; a friction would set up. Just as a ship would not man
with both Madras and Calcutta Lascars,” p. 40.

® cf. R. H. Thornton, British Shipping, pp. 219-222. The number of casual
foreigners employed on British ships fell from 40,000 in 1902 to 8,000 in 1935. .

There were one or two exceptions to this rule. For example, coloured seamen
sailing on the West African liner trade exLiverpool could be engaged at lower
rates than white seamen. The N.M.B. is a non-statutory body consisting of repre-
sentatives of the Mercantile Marine, deck officers, firemen, etc., to discuss and settle
by agreement rates of wages and conditions of employment in British ships which
sign on their crews in the United Kingdom. It is, therefore, the Trades Council of the
industry, since its function is to negotiate with the employers. It does not deal with
ships which sign on their crews at a non-British port.

MARITIME SETTING OF THE COMMUNITY

37

articles the gap was left wide open for manipulation of the wage
situation in other ways. The point has an important bearing on
the subsequent history of the Cardiff coloured population, and
meant simply that the emphasis on the seamen’s struggle was
shifted to a narrower sphere.

4. The “System” and its Victims

The lot of the British merchant seaman is traditionally a
hard one. He is drawn, as a rule, from the least literate section
of society, and in consequence, perhaps, tends to fall foul most
easily of the peculiar social and economic circumstances in which
he lives and works. These circumstances, particularly unenviable
at the beginning of the century, have been characterised as a
“system of slavery” by at least one of its victims,^ who claims
that deplorable rates of pay were its basis and that it was well
marked in Cardiff itself. According to the autobiographical
account of this author, the “System” constituted a vicious circle
and repeated tale of low wages, debt, occasional drunkenness,
fraud, graft and unemployment^ — a picture of maritime social
conditions which seems to have held good in several respects
for the white as well as coloured seaman even up to the present
day, and whose perpetuation, despite sporadic attempts at
legislation, resulted from the lack of public interest in the industry
as well as from its depressed condition throughout virtually the
entire period between the wars. It is the misfortune of the mer-
chant seaman that of all the labouring class he is the first to feel
the reactions of a world economic slump; and yet it is he who by
his labour supports and sustains a whole host of subsidiary
economic interests and services. These comprise not only ship-
owners and shareholders, but directly or indirectly a legion of
ancillaries, such as ships’ runners, chandlers, publicans, ship-
brokers, boarding-house and lodging-house keepers, touts of all
kinds, prostitutes, etc., to say nothing of an army of officials,

^ SeamerCs Torch: Captain Tapper, “It was the System. It allowed rates of pay to
remain so low, so damnably and inhumanly low, that the children of seamen went
day after day to hunt for the treasure of discarded scraps of dirty food.*’

^ ibid. For a graphic description of the operation of the “System” and the vicious
circle see the reference above.

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

38

from the Shipowners’ Federation to the Trade Union secretary
and Port Welfare officer.

5. The Boarding-House Master

The boarding- and lodging-house master has come in for a
great deal of adverse criticism. There is no doubt that he often
makes a good living out of the seamen, but the function he fulfils,
so far as the alien and even more the coloured alien seafarer is
concerned, is in present circumstances well-nigh essential.
Picture the situation of a coloured seaman or group of coloured
seamen arriving at Cardiff for the first time, either on discharge
or seeking fresh employment. As seamen they can stay only at
the Sailors’ Home or at a boarding house. Being coloured, it is
unlikely that they will be welcome at the former, and in any case
they will probably prefer to stay at a place kept by one of their
own nationality. They are in a strange land, of whose language
they may be almost ignorant. Nevertheless, there are various
matters requiring urgent attention. There is the necessity of
registering with the Police; they must find another ship; they
have kit or stores or clothes to buy. They need, in fact, not only
some kind of liaison with the outside world, but a veritable
father confessor — someone to advise them in case of difficulty,
to write their letters for them, to stand surety for them if they
should fall foul of the law; to provide them with credit if their
resources run out before they secure further employment; and
finally, if they do not return from their next trip, to dispose of
their kit and return their effects to their relatives. With this
heavy and very comprehensive degree of responsibility, it is
not surprising that individual boarding-house keepers are
sometimes accused of indulging in unfair and even corrupt
practices. Particularly in the old days, before the regulations
introduced the practice of signing on a ship before the eyes of a
government official, crews were found and engaged through the
direct offices of a boarding-house master, who was thereby
provided with an excellent opportunity of keeping his customers
in continuous economic thrall. There were further opportunities
for nefarious practices. One of the most notorious of these arose
from the custom of “buying” jobs. Individual boarding-house

MARITIME SETTING OF THE ,COMMUNITY 39

keepers kept closely in touch with the second engineers of steamers,
who were on the look-out for many men as firemen and stokers.
A job could be secured by means of a “backhander” of two pounds
to the “Second”, supplied by the man requiring it. ^ Another
practice of boarding-house masters was to send an indigent
customer out hawking goods on the basis of a small commission.
On the other hand, it must be remembered that the business
of running a boarding house is as precarious as the industry
on which it depends. During a bad period of unemployment
it is not unlikely that a master will be left with a dozen men on
his hands who have literally come to the end of their resources
and who look to him for their keep. In such a case, the master
has no option but to apply to the authorities for aid. ^ If he turns
the men out he runs the risk of earning a bad name. There is
nowhere else they can go except the workhouse, and in that case
he will forfeit the chance of ever regaining his outlay. His hope
lies in a revival of trade, and of his debtors recouping him. In the
majority of cases they do so as far as they can; but even this does not
exhaust the onerous side of the business. Apart from the financial
implications, present-day regulations demand as the price of his
licence as the keeper of an authorised Seamen’s Lodging House
that his premises fulfil numerous precise stipulations relating to
health, sanitation, right of entry, etc.^

^ Another “back-handing” practice of far less antiquity sometimes took place
in connection with the boarding of alien seamen in boarding houses whilst serving
on articles. In this case, the crew-master would receive a “commission” from the
boarding-house master on each batch of men boarded with him out of the 5/- per
head allowed by the shipowner for their billeting {communicated),

* There is one record during the 1935 trouble (see below, p. 73) of a Malay
boarding-house master being owed as much as £2,000.

^ The most important of these regulations are as follows:

1 . He shall not sell or be engaged in the sale of intoxicating liquor, or be engaged
or interested in the business of a Clothier, Outfitter, or Slop-dealer.

2. The Medical Officer of Health, officers of the Board of Trade, and Police have
right of access and inspection to his premises at any time.

3. He must provide at least 30 cubic feet of air space for each person in his
dormitories, and not accommodate at any time a larger number of lodgers than
has been authorised by the Council.

4. He must follow out certain provisions regarding sanitation, water closets and
washing facilities and general hygiene. He must affix in a prominent place a
copy of the City’s Bye-laws in this respect together with his scale of charges,
and not make a higher charge than is provided by the scale.

5. He must not admit or fail to exclude from his premises any thief, reputed thief,
prostitute or reputed prostitute, or any other person of immoral or improper
character.

The object of the first-mentioned provision is mainly to prevent the practice of
Truck. In the old days it was frequently the practice of a ship’s master or boarding-
house keeper to fit out the crew after signing on with various articles of second-hand

40

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

The following is a complete enumeration of seamen’s lodging
houses and boarding houses in Cardiff in terms of the nationalities
for which they cater; it will be noted that the Arab houses easily

outnumber those catering for other

non-Europeans. ^

No, of

Nationality

Houses

Beds

West African and West Indian .

4

23

Somali .....

4

28

Arab .....

17

186

Indian .....

. . I

8

Maltese .....

5

”3

Greek .....

4

16

Cypriot .....

I

I

Portuguese ....

3

40

Spanish .....

. . I

3

Turkish .....

I

10

Malay .....

I

7

Scandinavian ....

. . I

8

British .....

8

421 ^

6. Seamen as “Lodgers”

In Cardiff, as in other ports, it is an offence against the law
for any private person or householder to lodge a seaman. The
purpose of this is to restrict their lodging to reputable establish-
ments, but the regulation is not generally obeyed, and there are
ways and means of evading it with impunity. All that an un-
authorised person has to do is to let a room unfurnished, and the
“lodger” immediately becomes his sub-tenant and not his lodger.
Hence arises a fairly common practice by which the would-be
occupant of a room simply purchases the few articles of furniture
in it to satisfy the Police or Sanitary Authorities that he did in
fact take the room unfurnished. Often this “purchase” of furni-
ture is a mere pretence, and a fictitious receipt for a sum of money

clothing, of which the indigent seamen were usually badly in need after their long
period of unemployment. The exchange was effected against the customary advance
note, and the master’s “clothing department” ashore was known as the Slop-chest.

^ The Arab establishments, incidentally, have a very high reputation for general
cleanliness.

* Cardiff is probably less badly off for accommodation than some other ports.
In Liverpool up to the present day there was a fairly common saying that the only bed
a seaman coming ashore at night could hope to find would be with a prostitute.

MARITIME SETTING OF THE COMMUNITY 4 1

paid for the furniture is all that is required to place the authorities
in a hopeless position. ^

This situation, however, is simply an aspect of the general
picture of “Sailor Town” and of an environment which should be
appreciated in its much wider implications. In addition to
British seamen calling at Cardiff there are, it is calculated, some
40,000 foreign seamen visitors every year (the figure excludes
returns from Belgium, Sweden and Denmark). All merchant
ships allow their crews ashore until time for work in the morning.
A general estimate is that some 15 per cent, of the crews go ashore
on weekday evenings, and rather more than half on Saturdays
and Sundays, and a proportion of these are of course still ashore
at midnight.^ Whether European or coloured, such men are
as strangers less likely to be able to find their way about, and,
wittingly or not, tend inevitably to fall in with people whose
interest in them is definitely economic and very often nefarious. ®

7. The Cardiff Dockland

In Cardiff, as in other British ports, the general physical
as well as social conditions all contribute to this effect. A glance
at the map will show that the docks, the Pier Head and the landing
stages stand at the end of a narrow peninsula of land over a mile
distant from the city proper, to which they are connected by one
main thoroughfare and a tramway. The whole of this peninsula
is a maritime quarter in every sense of the word. Its houses are
inhabited almost exclusively by seafaring people, its offices and
buildings and many of its shops have a similar connection, and its
remaining space is taken up almost entirely with graving and
floating docks, warehouses, railways and canals, timber yards

^ cf. Capt. F. A. Richardson. “Social Conditions in Ports,** Conference on the
Welfare of the Mercantile Marine Soc. Hyg. Coun. July 1936. Legislation to this
effect was enacted as long ago as 1894 under the Merchant Shipping Act which gave
this power under local bye-laws.

^ ibid,

^ cf. Captain Tapper^ op, cit,

“But it was ‘Hello Jack!’, a hearty hand on a shoulder, and very soon, across the
road to a bar. At the best, the free and easy sailor man stood so many drinks, and took
so many himself, that in the end his money had shrunk to practically nothing. . • .
At the worst, some sociable stranger took his eye away from his glass for just a fraction
of time — and something went into the glass which knocked Jack cold. He would pick
himself up, sometime, from some back alley, with a thick head and no money at all.
Skinned clean. . . •”

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

42

and ponds and the other appurtenances of mercantile and
commercial enterprise. It is a drab district, differing from other
great ports of the kingdom only by its isolation from the rest of
the town on the one hand, and by the relative width of its streets
on the other. Except in one business square, the buildings and
architecture make no attempt to be impressive; they are generally
of old type and out-of-date design, with a uniform nondescript-
ness of colour. ^ During the daytime and in the business quarter
by the Pier Head, there are obvious signs of commercial and
industrial activity. There is a coming and going of clerks,
business men, ships’ officers, and naval seamen, and (during the
war) of soldiers on barrack duty. Here, too, during the daytime
files the procession of merchant seamen on their way to the Labour
Exchange to sign on at the “pool”, and crowds of dock workers,
ship repairers, scalers and general labourers pass in and out of
the yards. But practically all this is over by six o’clock in the
evening. For an hour past the district has been emptying of the
office class and of most of the dock workers whom tram, bus,
cycle and motor car carry off to the town, and the area is now as
complete a “Sailor town” as one could hope to find.

As in other similar districts, its amenities for recreation and
leisure-time diversion are of a strictly stereotyped kind. In
striking contrast to the complete absence of outdoor facilities
such as football and cricket pitches, bowling greens or swimming
baths, the indoor diversions of drink and women are in plentiful
supply. ^ In most of the smaller streets there is at least one public
house, and in Bute Street, which marks Bute Town’s “bright
light”, or more properly “red light” quarter, public houses and
caffis (which are quasi-public houses, besides providing other less
socially approved entertainment) jostle each other, in one case
to the extent of more than two dozen in a distance of some 300
yards. For the newly arrived seaman who is seeking companion-
ship, recreation, or even a meal, the opportunities are not very
wide. At the most there is a public library, two or three institutes
and missions where he can play billiards, read, or write letters;

^ In comment on port conditions in general Captain Richardson [op, cit,) writes: —

“Slum and dilapidation are nearly always the characteristics. Poorly lit streets,
old-fashioned and noisome street lavatories, over-numerous public-houses, mean
type caffs, whose real purpose is never left in doubt, are factors that appear in the
detailed description of the dockland areas of which survey has been made.**

^ Curiously enough, not even a cinema is numbered amongst dockland’s indoor
diversions.

MARITIME SETTING OF THE COMMUNITY 43

and perhaps two “better class” cafes, which, however, are not
easy to find or light on his purse. ^ If he is a coloured man, his
immediate position is both better and worse. There is sufficient
variety of coloured races and nationalities to ensure that with
judicious inquiry he will be able to find some of his “own people”
in the district to put him on his way. On the other hand, his
restriction to the dock area will be virtually ensured by the non-
official, yet socially recognised, barrier that separates him by
reason of his colour and occupation from the rest of the town. ^

^ As Captain Richardson remarks {op. ciL) in general reference — ‘‘there is no
comparison between the amenities of the normal up-town neighbourhood and those
of areas surrounding the docks’*.

2 Fairly frequent mention of the “colour line” in Cardiff is made in the course
of this survey. Its existence is so manifest and its implications so obvious from every,
angle that in discussing the position of the coloured community in this respect there
is a danger in overlooking altogether the significance of their purely maritime associa-
tions. Nor is the danger obviated by assuming that we are concerned merely with a
particular phenomenon or aspect of the British social structure: there are other
subtleties in the situation which are best reviewed in terms of the social or occupa-
tional class to which these coloured folk belong. Merchant seamen probably constitute
in themselves a relatively “isolated” section of our society. By virtue of their employ-
ment they tend to be separated not only spatially and physically, but in actual
psychological terms — through cosmopolitan experience, hardship, and sometimes
danger — from the broad labouring section of society to which they belong. Occupa-
tional disassociation, moreover, is enhanced by other social factors as well as by
historical tradition. Any seaman, by reason of his trade as a manual worker, figures
low in the social scale, but, what is even more significant from the point of view of
society, he is also very frequently a migrant and even an alien (in the literal sense of
this word) . His social relationships tend to be vague, transient and difficult to deter-
mine; his responsibilities few and sometimes impossible to enforce. The reciprocal
obligations which bind other members of the group have less chance of fulfilment in
his case, and in failing may set up a dangerous tendency towards social disintegration.
Society prefers to accord to such persons a limited status, and sometimes for con-
venience to restrict them to a more or less separate locality, in the same way that
actual aliens, lacking the ordinary privileges of citizenship, are sometimes segregated.

These considerations, it is obvious, are doubly manifest in the case of the Cardiff
community. As seafarers, and as racially distinctive strangers, their alien quality
and the corresponding isolation has a twofold basis. The fact that other “isolated”
types, such as prostitutes, who are likewise out of status with the greater society,
should also be found in the same area seems to add further theoretical point to this
suggestion. It is interesting to find a somewhat similar suggestion advanced by
Louis Wirth in his study of another “segregated” community, (cf. The Ghetto^ Chic.
Univ. Soc. Series, p. 284.)

“The physical distance that separates these immigrant areas from that of the
natives is at the same time a measure of the social distance between them and a
means by which this social distance can be maintained. This does not so much
imply mutual hostility as it implies and makes possible mutual tolerance. These
segregated areas make it possible for the immigrants to avoid the ancient dictum,
‘When in Rome do as the Romans do’, and permits them to be themselves.”

44

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

8. The Maritime Population and its Location

We may now pass on to review in more specific terms, firstly
the general habitat and component elements of the seafaring
population of Cardiff as a whole, and next the specific location
of the coloured community itself, which makes up the largest
proportion of that population. It may be taken for granted at the
start that practically all seafarers, whether temporarily or
permanently resident in Cardiff, are to be found in Adamsdown
and South Wards, more specifically in South Adamsdown and
on the side of South Ward east of the River Taff, In this area
live most of the white as well as coloured seamen, although one
or two licensed boarding establishments for the former have
recently been opened by the Port Welfare authorities in an up-
town district. There are no means of estimating with any degree
of accuracy the size of the population so designated, but the figures
for the whole of the Adamsdown and South Wards for 1940 were
placed at some 15,000 and 14,000 respectively, and so probably
a figure of some 10,000 would be a reasonable estimate of the
resident population of the mercantile quarter itself.^ A very
general estimate for the coloured community would suggest a
figure in the neighbourhood of 6,000. ^ In addition to the coloured
households — including all families of non-European origin —
there are representative numbers of various European national-
ities living in the same area. They consist mainly of Greeks,
Cypriots, Maltese, and Spaniards, with a rather smaller number
of Portuguese and Italian families.

The location of these various racial groups and nationalities
can be ascertained from the map of dockland (facing p. 32), from
which, also, the geographical extent of the maritime quarter
as a whole can be gauged. It will be noted that the entire area
is clearly demarcated by a number of “natural” boundaries.
These consist at the north end, of the Great Western Railway
line; on the west side, of the Glamorganshire Canal; on the east
side, of the docks railway line, and of a consistent series of ware-
houses, docks and factories; and on the south, of the Bristol
Channel. In other words, this peninsula of human habitation

^ This figure was arrived at with the help of officials in the Cardiff Public Health
Department.

^ See Chapter 5 for further demographic particulars.

MARITIME SETTING OF THE COMMUNITY 45

is almost literally shut in and cut off from the rest of the world
by a compact barrier of docks, water, rails, fencing, and
machinery. There are, in fact, only three ways of entering the
area by land. One of these is by a main thoroughfare — Bute
Street — to which reference has already been made. This provides
access by a tramway which, starting from the Hayes in the city,
crosses the boundary by passing under the viaduct carrying the
G.W. railway line. An alternative method of approach from the
city is by a fairly broad road which, running alongside the
Glamorganshire Canal, leads directly into the coloured quarter
itself. The third approach is from the industrial suburb of
Grangetown along Clarence Road, passing first by a bridge
over the River Taff and secondly by a swing bridge over the
lower end of the Glamorganshire CanaH into the business
quarter of the area. The limited access serves not only to indicate
the physical isolation of the district, but perhaps psychologically
also to give the city folk and the inhabitants of the peninsula alike
an enhanced sense of their mutual disassociation.

9. The Distribution of the Coloured Folk

But while the area as a whole is thus clearly separated from
the city by physical as well as psychological barriers, it is hardly
less divided in itself by features of the former class. A glance at
the distribution of the population soon makes this clear, and a
further examination of the topography of the area confirms it.

^ This Canal, which forms the western boundary of the district, is a sheet of water
some 40 yards wide at its narrowest point and perhaps 8o yards at its widest. It has
considerable historical interest, particularly from the part it played in the development
of Cardiff as a prominent seaport and commercial city. Indeed, its establishment as
early as 1798 provides the landmark separating modern from old Cardiff. Up to the
early nineteenth century the important iron-manufacturing industry at the valley
heads of South Wales lacked any means of cheap and convenient transport to the
coast, and the only means open to the iron-masters of Dowlais and Cyfarthfa of
conveying their products was on the backs of horses and mules over the rough tracks
which led circuitously over the hill-tops from north to south. The opening of the
Canal therefore greatly accelerated both maritime and industrial activity; but after
some fifty years of useful service the numerous locks on the canal, necessitated by the
rising ground it covered, made it unsuitable to cope with the growing volume of
traffic. To-day, although barge traffic is negligible, it floats a certain amount of
timber. It is also used by the coloured and other children from the houses along its
banks as a surreptitious bathing and “boating” resort: planks are paddled canoe
fashion on the stream with the aid of an improvised wooden board, while the gra^Sf
grown towing path serves as a somewhat precarious playground.

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

46

Firstly, the Adamsdown section of the community is divided
from that in South Ward by the Mount Stuart Square business
quarter, a railway yard and piece of waste ground; secondly, a
cutting from the Glamorganshire Canal, turning eastward and
crossed at Bute Street by a bridge, bisects the Adamsdown part
itself. There is thus a further sub-division of the maritime
community as a whole into three “natural” locations. The
corresponding ethnic sections of the community are almost
equally distinetive. In the last-mentioned locality, i.e. north of the
Canal cutting, are mainly Greeks and Cypriots; immediately
below the bridge and extending as far down as West Bute Street,
hereafter known as the Loudoun Square locality, lives the coloured
community proper; whilst a further mixed population, composed
of three main elements, whites including Spaniards and coloured
— with the latter comprising perhaps one-third of the whole —
inhabits the third locality at the tip of the peninsula.

We can now proceed to consider the coloured community
itself. The main elements consist of Arab, West African and West
Indian seamen, but it has been estimated that altogether in this
Loudoun Square quarter some fifty different nationalities are to
be found. The community area, as such, consists of Loudoun
Square itself and a further fifteen inhabited streets, the location
of which can be seen on the map. The Square itself serves as a
convenient centre. Here the density of the coloured population
is greatest — with perhaps eight coloured out of every ten persons — ■
whereas, in the four small streets immediately south of it, such as
Hannah Street, etc., probably not more than every other person
is eoloured. Further south, at the Pier Head, as already
mentioned, the proportion is even smaller. It will thus be
evident from the way the population is distributed that the choice
of this district as the coloured quarter is in no sense an arbitrary
one. In comparison, for example, with similar communities
in other seaports of the kingdom, such as Liverpool, London,
South Shields, etc., the concentration and segregation of the
Cardiff coloured folk is very significant and worthy of emphasis.
Indeed, so plentiful are dark skins in comparison with light in
Loudoun Square and its satellite streets that a stranger entering
the district for the first time might well imagine himself in some
oriental town.

In terms of general features and amenities the district thus

MARITIME SETTING OF THE COMMUNITY 47

demarcated differs from the rest of dockland in only one or two
important respects. The four rows of large early Victorian houses
forming Loudoun Square enclose a small park, which is used as a
children’s playground, and includes a paddling pool, swings,
etc. There are several churches in active use and one or two are
lying derelict. One, at the north end and adjacent to the canal
bridge, is Anglo-Catholic, and another of importance on the
south side of the Square itself is Methodist.

lo. Bute Street and its Inhabitants

For reasons which will presently become clearer, it is a
moot point whether Bute Street itself should be included in the
coloured area thus specified. Geographically it is immediately
adjacent, and a large number of its inhabitants are coloured,
but there are sociological reasons for not identifying it too closely
with the community life of the coloured section. In any case,
Bute Street, with its world-wide reputation, deserves more than
passing reference. The wide thoroughfare, traversed by a double
tramway track with overhead wires, connects the Pier Head with
the up-town area, a distance of over a mile. A large part of the
east side of the road contains no shops or buildings, and virtually
all pedestrian traffic proceeds along the west or Loudoun
Square side past the almost innumerable “cafes” for which Bute
Street is famous or infamous, and the only less numerous boarding
houses and public houses. There are also shops, mainly clothiers’,
who sell a great variety of garments, from seafaring equipment,
such as firemen’s suits, naval uniforms, seaboots, wire belts
(used because their elasticity is not affected by sweat), etc., to
smart lounge suits and felt hats; a number of general stores, and
a few jewellers and tobacconists. There are no multiple stores
either here or in Loudoun Square.

The notorious Bute Street caf^, as well as its proprietor and
his “staff”, have all a certain uniformity of characteristics.
Through windows, sometimes partially boarded up, are displayed
fairly ostentatiously one or two articles of food, perhaps a few
bottles of mineral waters, and sometimes a price list. The outside
appearance of the place is essentially drab and unprepossessing,
and is enlivened but little by the exotic name scrawled over the

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

48

window. The door at the street admits into a room of varying
size and shape, and of various degrees of cleanliness, wherein
are a few small tables, chairs, and usually one or two couches
or settees of battered leather. A strong smell of cooked or cooking
food pervades the air, and a wireless set, usually a radiogram,
is in full blast in an adjoining room at all times of the day. Apart
from light refreshments, such as tea and lemonade, groceries and
food can sometimes be bought, and during the daytime a certain
amount of this “legitimate” business is carried on. Sometimes
there are large mirrors on the wall in such a position as to reflect
the entrance of visitors to the cafe into an inside room, a usual
feature of the establishment; to this room entrance is gained
through a doorway, sometimes screened, at the back of the cafe.
Here, “callers” can lounge in a greater degree of seclusion, waited
upon and chatted to by one or two of the female attendants.
Cafe proprietors are mostly Maltese, but there are other national-
ities in the business, such as Indians, Jews, and Africans. In
several cases the premises are actually owned by the person
running them, and although there are exceptions, there is no
doubt that most of them are what the Police are in the habit
of terming “alleged brothels”, which come into service after
dark.

II. “GafI” Practices

The procedure appears to be somewhat as follows: by virtue
of their possessing a food licence, these cafes are able to keep open
for “refreshments” until ii p.m., i.e. one hour later than the
public houses close. This enables alcoholic drinks to be served
after hours to those who require them, and full advantage is
taken both of the thirst of the customer and of his lack of sobriety.
For example, a number of concoctions are sold at enhanced
prices. In some cases, it is merely diluted whisky at 7 /6 per cup:
in other cases, when more of a “kick” is required, a mixture of
Australian wine and methylated spirits is supplied. Near beer and
hop beer are also available at a cost considerably above their
flagon price. The implications as well as the purpose of this
type of trade are various. In some cases the methylated mixture
is supplied deliberately for the purpose of stupefying a customer.
He is then robbed of any valuables he happens to be carrying and

MARITIME SETTING OF THE COMMUNITY 49

is dragged away and deposited fifty yards or so away from the
premises, either in Bute Lane (a narrow alleyway behind the
Bute Street houses) or in Bute Street itself. A more usual purpose,
of course, is that of solicitation, which in this district is probably
very rarely, if ever, carried on out of doors. The cafe proprietor
himself may act as the pander on some occasions. The “cafe
girls” themselves are invariably white. Some of them are old
hands at the profession, and may even specialise in coloured men.
Others are comparatively new at the art, and more or less in
process of being “broken in”. Most of these women are fairly
young, and some are quite attractive in appearance and smartly
dressed. During the day they are to be seen occasionally at a
ca.f6 door, usually wearing an apron, which appears to be a badge
of their occupation as “waitresses”. Their terms of engagement
vary. Usually, however, they appear to work on a commission
basis with the caft proprietor at whose establishment they live.
They sleep upstairs in a room which contains a large double
bed ^ and a few articles of furniture, for which they are supplied
with a rent book by the proprietor. ^ The methods by which
they are recruited also vary considerably. It appears as if the
“older hands” quite deliberately follow trade about; that is to
say, they may move from Cardiff to Liverpool, or back again to
South Shields, according to the prospects of business, and some-
times, no doubt, to the degree of attention they receive from
the Police.®

The “fresh” ones enter the trade in several ways. Sometimes
it is merely a quarrel with parents or the fear of detection in
Some more or less petty misdemeanour;^ in some cases, women

^ It is said that German bombs which fell in the vicinity of Bute Street during
the air raids of the Second World War produced some sardonic and gruesome situa-
tions in this connection.

^ One estimate of the economic arrangements in this respect supplied to the writer,
was 8/- to 10/- per week rental plus half of the girls* earnings.

® Compare this account of the Cardiff caf(6 and its implications with a
“Report on Investigation into Conditions of the Coloured Population in a
Stepney area’*, wherein the investigator, Mrs. Young, describes a very similar situation,
pp. 24-25. She mentions, also, that the Stepney cafes are in many cases linked with
caffs elsewhere — not only in other parts of London such as the Tottenham Court
Road area, but as far afield as Coventry. It is possible that there are analogous
linkages in the case of Cardiff, although the present writer cannot recall having heard
of any specific instances.

^ The following example of one Cardiff girl is probably fairly typical of many
others. A young girl of good-class family had her pocket-money stopped by her
father, who did not approve of her expenditure on cosmetics. Mainly, no doubt,
with the object of “keeping up with her friends”, the girl proceeded to steal some

3

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

50

fall into the occupation through a social misfortune, such as an
illegitimate baby; sometimes one of the parents marries a second
time, and the girl finds her new home life intolerable; to others
the restrictions of life within a limited circle of experience are
burdensome and they leave it through a spirit of adventure.
Perhaps most of these girls, however, drift into the Bute Street
milieu directly or indirectly through sheer economic necessity.
Particularly during the depression in the South Wales coal trade,
young girls were forced into such cities as Cardiff to work in
some cases practically for their keep alone. After long hours of
tedium and drudgery they readily accepted the invitation of other
girls like themselves to find relief in the cosmopolitan excitement
of dockland and in a life where, as they speedily discovered, they
could earn more money in half an hour than was previously
produced by a month’s drudgery. Added to this is the opportunity
for the first time in their lives to wear expensive, even fashionable
clothing.

It is an interesting question how far Bute Street is allowed
almost deliberately to continue as the vice area of the town. The
Police make sporadic raids on the cafi^s, and sometimes send
plain-clothes detectives into them in the hope of catching some
illegality red-handed. This is not easy to do. Apart from the
employment of reflecting mirrors by which the approach of a
policeman can be observed by the wrong-doers inside the cafe,
there are other means of disposing of the necessary evidence. For
example, a slop bucket filled with water is kept handy, and
illicitly supplied drink is sometimes served in teacups so that both
cups and their contents can be dropped into the bucket, if
necessary, at a moment’s notice. Again, it is admittedly not easy
to put a stop to the practice of prostitution unless it can be proved
in terms of a disorderly house. ^ Soliciting is not done in the

money, and was subsequently sent to an approved school from which she ran away.
She was then “picked up” by one of the Maltese proprietors while he was in another
town. He proceeded to buy clothes for her, and gradually to “break her in” (that is,
accustom her to the life, art and technique of prostitution) whilst looking after her.
After this she was more or less in the toils for good. She felt she could not return to her
parents, and was in constant fear lest the authorities should discover her. Lacking
in experience of the world and without any means of coping with the situation in which
she found herself, she simply accepted it as the only life open to her.

^ It is possible at the same time that a certain amount of souteneuring is done by
hawkers who go round the ships. Mr. J. Sandeman Allen, M.P. (7th Conf. Soc.
Hyg.), suggests that a strict survey of hawkers’ licenses would be of great value. Most
of the docks at which ships berth in other ports of the country are surrounded by a
l^imdary wall against undesirables and thieves, but in Cardiff as elsewhere (except

MARITIME SETTING OF THE COMMUNITY 5 1

streets, and there is nothing in English law to prevent a woman
from going to bed with any man, and even receiving money for
doing so, if she wishes. ^ The extent, if any, to which the present
situation is connived at would of course be difficult to prove.
Members of the resident coloured community who deplore the
unavoidable association of their district with the notoriety of
Bute Street claim that the Police are in the habit of receiving
“back-handers” from the caft proprietors. It is also significant
that during a recent case when the Police sought powers to close
down one of these establishments, the defending solicitor based
his plea in Court on the ground that to shut up the cafe in question
would merely have the effect of sending the undesirables up
to practise their trade in the town itself. ^ In the meantime, not
only for the transient seafaring clientele, white as well as coloured,
but for many of the large crowds of male pleasure seekers who
flock into Cardiff from the valleys and towns of South Wales on
the occasion of the big rugby international matches, Bute Street
continues to offer its dubious wares and services. The latter are
not insignificant if the attribution of over 50 per cent, of the cases
of venereal disease in mining villages and towns to a Bute Street
origin can be accepted as a reasonably valid estimate.®

Of the “cafe”' proprietors, as already indicated, men of

war-time) there is nothing to prevent the male tout from mixing with the crowd of
dock-workers who normally enter, and thus acting as a go-between for women who
want to advertise their addresses to the seamen.

^ “In all matters appertaining to street walkers it is most important to bear in
mind that in this country it is not against the law for a woman over the age of consent
(sixteen) to have sexual relations with any man, be it for cash or other consideration
of value or for sheer sexual gratification. The fact that giving of cash or other valuable
consideration has taken place does not affect the matter in the eyes of the law:
only soliciting by the woman on the street brings her within the reach of the law.
A street walker as such, providing she has not solicited in public, may receive and
entertain in her rooms as many men as she can endure, but this brings the owner
of the house within the reach of the law.” Traders in ITom^rz, Joseph Grad.

- Several persons with whom the writer discussed the point were inclined to agree
strongly with the force and logic of this argument. It is possible in so far as public
opinion exists on this matter, that, having regard to the circumstances, toleration of
the Bute Street area is regarded as unavoidable, though not desirable, cf. also Walter
Reckless, Vice in Chicago, p. 5.

“The wholesale closing of the houses of ill-fame, in view of the previous history
of the city, was a radical step. The public officials and the police were practically
unanimous for ‘segregation’ or ‘toleration*. The Mayor was inclined to believe that
segregation was the best way of handling the problem, although he suggested a
popular referendum on the closing of the ‘red light* district.”

Against this suggestion in respect to the Cardiff Police and authorities may be
put their support of the Conference on Social Hygiene’s resolutions advocating a
thorough surveillance of “caf6s”. (See footnote, p. 69.)

® 7th Conf. SoCt Hyg.

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

52

Maltese origin provide the majority, and they are given a very
bad name in the district by the coloured people as well as by
officials. ^ But not all the Maltese are engaged in this nefarious
trade. Several of them keep entirely respectable and well-
organised boarding houses, and a Maltese was second in command
at the local A.R.P. post. Apart from “cafes”, there are perhaps
three rather “better-class” eating houses in Bute Street, one of
which, a Chinese place, attracted before the war a “good class”
city clientele, which used to run down in the evenings by car. In
terms of the history of the city itself, Bute Street is of some
slight antiquity, and its construction about 1840, across what at
that time was moorland, seems to have antedated by many
years the urbanisation of the district it now traverses. ^

CHAPTER 4

ITS HISTORICAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND
I. The Early Days of Loudoun Square

In its earliest days the Loudoun Square area, or “Tiger
Bay”, as it is more popularly called, appears to have been a
busy iron-working centre as well as a maritime quarter. An
1895 map of Cardiff shows the Loudoun Foundry on one side
of the Glamorganshire Canal and the Bute Iron Works on the
other, and at least up to 1905 the sheds of the old iron-masters,
dismantled and ruinous, still remained. The actual urbanization
of the district can probably be traced back to the foundation of the
new church of St. Mary the Virgin in 1845, and it was certainly
complete some time before 1886, for a further map of the town
dated that year shows all the present-day streets in being with
their modern names, with the single exception of Frederica
Street for the present-day Angelina Street. Loudoun Square itself

^ At the same time many of these individuals are extremely patriotic. As a case
in point, on one occasion a “suspicious character” in one of the caf6s, thought to be
a spy because he was asking strangers a large number of questions about shipping
was hurried off at once by the Maltese proprietor to the Police station. He turned
out to be merely an M.O.I. official collecting “copy”. Several of the Maltese “caf(6s”
also displayed handbills seeking funds for a charitable organisation in Malta.

* Records of Cardiff, 1905.

HISTORICAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 53

was offered in 1888 by the then Lord Bute as an open space for
all time, and the offer was accepted by the Council, ^ The present
facilities there, already mentioned, were constructed by the
Corporation a few years ago from what had once been a bowling
green and natural spring. For, cosmopolitan as the district is to-
day, almost up to the time of the First World war the well-built
and not unhandsome three-storey houses of the Square were the
residences of a well-to-do class of sea-captains, lawyers, business
people and other prosperous members of the bourgeoisie. Indeed,
in the early days of Cardiff’s maritime and industrial expansion,
this was the “natural” location of the wealthy and rising class —
outside the city itself, but within convenient distance of its centre
by carriage. For their material needs there were great emporia
in Bute Street where all their shopping could be done. For their
spiritual needs, the original parish church of St. Mary’s, which
had previously stood in the city proper and was eroded and
rendered derelict by the River Taff in the early part of the i6th
century, was resuscitated in 1845. The older foundation had a
long history, being first mentioned in 1 102. The present large
and imposing structure, with its internal fittings and equipment,
pays full tribute to the affluence as well as the devotion of the
inhabitants of the then “suburb”. Much the same might be said
of the present-day Methodist mission on the other side of the
Square. Though its origins were historically and traditionally
much less auspicious, it, too, flourished in its day; but as the
chronicler of nonconformity in Cardiff puts it, “many people
left the neighbourhood to reside in the (newer) suburbs, and the
Church went down rapidly”.^ Its career as a Mission church
began in 1893, and so we may take it that the more prosperous
and respectable inhabitants of the area had begun some years
earlier to recede before the tide of fresh immigrants whose
appearance in the streets surrounding the Square was an index
of the city’s steady encroachment throughout the 19th century.

2 , Loudoun Square as an “Ecological” Phenomenon

There is much in the changes which have taken place in this
area, as well as in the growth of Cardiff itself, to engage the interest

^ Records of the County Borough of Cardiff, Council Minutes, 1880-97.

* History of Nonconformity in Cardiff , J. Austin Jenkins, 1901, ed.

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

54

of the American “social ecologists”. The concentric and radial
features which R. E. Park and other members of the school
postulate in their theories of urban expansion are here apparently
lacking, largely perhaps for the very natural and physical reasons
which are part of the ecologists’ scheme, such as the proximity
of the sea. It might be argued, however, that there are other
elements which do not invalidate the general theory. So far as
Cardiff is concerned, it is as if there had been a compensatory
bulge backwards on the north and west sides of the city, in terms
of the “tertiary” and “quaternary” zones of “expansion” and
“succession” as shown by such suburban areas as Ely and
Mynachdy. ^

There is, indeed, much in the antecedents of the Loudoun
Square district itself which would endorse the general and
theoretical implications of the “ecological” process, particularly
as concerns the arrival of the coloured folk themselves. Until the
i88o’s at least, it seems possible that the actual Square and the
streets immediately adjacent to it represented respectively the
last and the penultimate stages of transition in the process.

^ cf. R. E. Park and others, The City, and H. W. Zorbaugh, The Gold Coast and the
Slum. This expansion of the city, according to Park, is thought of almost wholly in
terms of its physical growth, whose typical processes can best be illustrated, perhaps,
by a series of concentric circles numbered to designate both the successive zones of
urban extension and the types of areas differentiated in the process of expansion.

“Such a chart represents an ideal construction of the tendencies of any town or
city to expand radially from its central business district. Encircling the town area
there is normally an area in transition, which is being invaded by business and light
manufacture (II). A third area (III) is inhabited by the workers in industries who
have escaped from the area of deterioration (II), but who desire to live within easy
access of their work. Beyond this zone is the “residential** area (IV) of high-class
apartment buildings or of exclusive “restricted** districts of single family dwellings.
Still farther, out of the city limits, is the commuters* zone — suburban areas, or satellite
cities — within thirty to sixty minutes’ ride of the central business district.

“This chart brings out clearly the main fact of expansion, namely, the tendency
of each inner zone to extend its area by the invasion of the next outer zone. This
aspect of expansion may be called Succession, a process which has been studied in
detail in plant ecology. ...” (From E. W. Burgess, “The Growth of the City” in
The City, pp. 50-1.)

It might be as well, however, to de-personify the concept which the analogy
suggests. It is plainly the people themselves in their social and occupational role who
invade the next outer zone, and who in “driving out” its previous inhabitants,
succeed them and take over the sociological nature of the district into which they have
come. The successive processes can be visualized in two ways; firstly, in terms of the
types of people concerned, and their social and occupational standing; and secondly,
as actual physical changes in the district itself.

According to the report of the present-day oldest inhabitant of the district, a
Barbadian, who made his first trip to Britain in a sailing vessel to Porthcawl, and
settled in Sophia Street in 1885, there were a few coloured men already about at this
time, but their presence evoked nothing more than friendly comment.

raSTORICAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 55

Loudoun Square being a residential area of high-class single-
family dwellings, and the streets north of it and nearer to the
city, Angelina Street, Christina Street, etc., occupied by the
slightly higher grade of worker. The next stage was presumably
the movement to the suburbs of which the Nonconformist
historian speaks, and the progressive infiltration of an alien and
it may be supposed largely Asiatic population. At any rate, there
can be little doubt that the “maritimization” of the district was
complete, and the exotic reputation of Tiger Bay established,
some time before the present century. ^

Loudoun Square seems to have retained its previous type of
inhabitant longer than the district round it, possibly because of
its amenities as the only solid residential quarter in the dock
neighbourhood for people with some kind of professional connec-
tion with that area. It must have stood like a veritable island
amidst the swelling cosmopolitan tide around it. Bute Street,
in the meantime, was acquiring its bad name. There were a
number of Chinese laundries in operation about this time, and
the Chinese were apparently in the habit of running opium
parties. By the time of the First World war, the cafes of Bute
Street, which had been originally opened as respectable and
legitimate trading establishments, were notorious.^

^ The novelist, Howard Spring, in his piece of autobiography, Heaven Lies About
USf writes of his experiences as an office boy at the Cardiff Docks (presumably about
1900) as follows:

“ . . . There was fascination in the walk through Tiger Bay. Chinks and Dagoes,
Lascars and Levantines slippered about the faintly evil by-ways that ran off Bute
Street. The whole place was a warren of seamen’s boarding houses, dubious hostels,
ships’ chandlers smelling of rope and tarpaulin, shops full of hard flat ship’s biscuit,
dingy chemists’ shops stored with doubtful-looking pills, herbs, and the works of
Aristotle, children of the strangest colours, fruit of frightful mesalliances, staggered
half-naked about the streets; and the shop-windows were decorated with names that
were an epitome of all the clans and classes under the sun. The flags of all nations
fluttered on the house fronts, and ever and anon the long bellowing moan of a ship
coming to the docks or outward bound seemed the very voice of this meeting place
of the seven seas. It was a dirty, rotten and romantic district, an offence and an
inspiration, and I loved it.”

^ See a letter which appeared in the Western Mail at the time of the 1919 riots:

“In 1916 the men of colour appealed to the Cardiff and District Citizens* Union
to protect them from the pitfalls and moral perils abounding in that area. In 1917 we
formed in connection with our Cardiff World Mission a coloured men’s cricket club,
and gave them £15 to start an Institute in Angelina Street. We secured from the
Parks Committee pitches in Llandaff Fields and Roath Park. Classes for Chinese and
Japanese were also established.”

56

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

3. The Coming of the Negroes

Negro people had become established in small numbers
during the ’90’s, and gradually worked down to Loudoun Square
itself. During the war of 1914-18 their numbers were very greatly
augmented by several streams of immigration. The war brought
to Great Britain many coloured men who in normal circumstances
would have been repatriated by the Government to their own
country. For example, a large number of ships which ordinarily
operated on the West African and other routes on which Negroes
and other coloured seamen are usually employed, were requisi-
tioned by the Government for transport service, and their crews
left behind. About the same time, coloured labour battalions
were formed for se^Jvice abroad, and the men were subsequently
demobilized in Britain. ^ In addition, a number of coloured men
were brought over to Manchester and other cities to work in
munition and chemical factories. The situation was similar at
most large British ports, e.g. Liverpool and London. It meant,
in effect, the domiciling in this country of quite large numbers of
coloured men; and with the closing down of war industries and
other forms of employment, very many of them flocked to such
centres as Cardiff, where in the shape of seafaring, there were
at least opportunities of the only kind of work open to them. It
is possible, also, so far as the years between the wars are concerned,
that the increased number of West Indians and West Africans
at the port was due not only to the laying up of ships during the
subsequent shipping depression, but to the more favourable
rates of pay available there than by signing on at Liverpool.
In any case, this later influx put a final seal on the changes in
the character of the district and established Loudoun Square
itself, with the adjoining streets, quite definitely as the coloured
quarter of the city. This meant, too, that the nature of the Square

^ cf. The KeySy publ. League of Coloured People, vol. viii, p. 22.

“During the war 200 men from coloured troops in Mesopotamia were transferred
by the Government to work in the Merchant Navy. In one case a coloured seaman
was forced to leave a foreign ship in Spain by the British consul and was sent to
England at the Government’s expense. A smaller number of coloured seamen were
landed in England after the end of the 1914 war as internees from Germany, having
been interned in Hamburg at the beginning of the war. Some further slight supple-
mentation in subsequent years was probably the result of a “drift” into seafaring on
the part of West Africans and West Indians who had come to this country hoping
to find better paid employment^ and failing to secure it had become seamen.” (See
p. 76.)

HISTORICAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 57

changed accordingly. Single dwelling houses became apartment
houses, and two and three persons compressed themselves into
the space that before the invasion had been occupied by one.

Such, then, was the position at the end of the First World
war. There was good money to be earned at sea during the war
period and up to 1919, and the coloured men prospered. But
the ending of the war meant the demobilization of large numbers
of white seamen who had been serving in the Navy and in mine-
sweepers. With their return to the trade, and with the heavy
shrinkage in tonnage employed, it was impossible to find jobs
for all. The shipowners and shipmasters took the line “our own
people first”, with the result that quite soon there were about
1 ,200 coloured men out of work in the port, to whom the Govern-
ment allowed 29/- per week as unemployment pay. The coloured
seamen had been earning up to ;;{^i5 per month during the war,
and quite apart from anything else, the sudden drop in their
economic circumstances was a severe one, particularly as they
were in the habit of spending freely what they earned. Not
unnaturally, their temporary prosperity had attracted the atten-
tions of the fair sex to the great resentment of white seamen,
who, returning home to Cardiff during the war years found that
their Army and Navy pay put them at a disadvantage in this
field as compared with the wealthier coloured man. Added
to this was the fact that many of the demobilized soldiers were
themselves unable to find employment. These seem to have been
the main factors and undercurrents in the serious outbreak of
racial riots which took place in Cardiff during a spell of hot
weather in June, 1919, and were recapitulated in almost every
port area of the kingdom where coloured men were living.

4 . The Cardiff Racial Riots and their Aftermath

As mentioned elsewhere, these riots have left a considerable
mark on the social heritage of the coloured community, and even
to-day its older members base their uncompromising attitude
towards white people largely on various incidents, real as well as
alleged, which then took place in Cardiff and Liverpool,
and which, therefore, are worth describing in some detail.
Apparently, the trouble in Cardiff began at about eleven p.m.

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

58

on June loth, 1919, with a scuffle between some white and some
coloured men at the town end of Canal Parade. A pistol shot
rang out, and in a few minutes a crowd estimated at about 2,000
people had collected. A second shot was the signal for a series of
fights, which extended from the immediate vicinity, down Custom
House Street, along Bute Street and its side streets. Shots were
fired repeatedly, and were followed by angry rushes, in which
sticks and stones were freely used. In its efforts to get at the
coloured men, the mob attacked a number of shops, and one in
Bute Street, where coloured men lodged, was completely
demolished.^ Two houses in Homfray Street were extensively
damaged, and a fire broke out in one of the coloured boarding
houses. The pistol firing, window-smashing and skirmishes
between white and coloured men went on for over an hour, by
which time the fire brigade had taken a hand. Fifteen people,
mainly suffering from bullet wounds and cuts, were admitted
to hospital, and one of them died a few hours later.

A more elaborate assault took place the following evening
in terms of what the Western Mail called a “Sidney Street Affair”.
Early in the evening, a large crowd collected near the Hayes
Bridge, and the excitement eventually centred in Millicent
Street off Bute Street. A house in which eight coloured men were
known to reside was attacked by revolver shots from the ware-
houses of an adjacent wholesale grocer. The vanguard was led
by two soldiers in uniform, who, on being confronted by the armed
coloured men, ordered their party to drop back, and then advanced
for the next onslaught with a table held up as a body shield. Fight-
ing then went on within the house, the besieged men defending
themselves with razor blades and a revolver, while outside a large
crowd looked on admiringly. To quote the Western Mail again: —

“There were many brave spirits well out of the danger zone. They had
allotted to themselves the task of cheering the invaders and accepting the
booty as it was handed out. Old women and slatternly young women shrieked
encouragement and it was a sight reminiscent of the French Revolution.”

Eventually, the police and fire brigade succeeded in interven-
ing again, and in taking the coloured men into protective custody.

^ “Hadji Mahomet, the Somali priest, was reported to be living at i, Homfray
Street, and the rioters visited him. In response to the entreaties of his white wife to
leave for a place of safety, the resourceful Somali clambered up a drain-pipe at the
back of his house. He was immune there from the fury of the crowd while hidden on
the roof, and with true Eastern Stoicism watched his residence being reduced to a
skeleton.” cf. Western MaU^ i2thjune, 1919.

HISTORICAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 59

But the excitement, with sporadic outbreaks of rioting, went on
for some days. The mob was finally overawed by the presence
of an increased police force and one or two War Department
lorries of soldiers in full fighting order; but not before a number of
unlucky Negroes had been chased by angry crowds, to find
sanctuary just in time, either in a house, or behind the horses of
mounted police.^

It seems fairly evident that these outbreaks were engineered
by a relatively small number of persons, and it has even been
suggested that a number of men were deliberately sent into the
town for this purpose. The mobs which took part in the hunts and
assaults seem to have been typical of their kind. Not one out of
twenty members of the crowd could explain why the trouble
arose. The chief comments heard were “Why should these
coloured men be able to get work when it is refused us?” and there
were dark references to the sex relations of coloured men with

white women. The general shout was “Kill the or “Lynch

the Always “the black man” was the quarry, and when-

ever one was rooted out, the mob rushed upon him.^ Claims for
damage, mainly to property, arising out of the riots cost the
Corporation some ;;^4,ooo, including solicitors’ fees.®

These events left no doubt regarding the precarious position
of the coloured folk, especially as there were now some 1,500 of
them out of work. The action of some, who took the hint and
applied to the Government for repatriation, was looked upon
with favour by a large section of the townspeople, amongst whom
the question of racial mixture was beginning to be viewed with
“an awakened conscience.”'^ With many others, however, there

^ Several coloured men who were in Cardiff at this time told the writer that for
several days during the riots they were forced to remain in their houses behind boarded
windows and barred doors.

* This account of the racial riots is based mainly on contemporary files of the
Western Mail.

® City of Cardiff. Proceedings of the Council^ 13th October, 1919.

^ cf. Western Mail i 13th June, 1919:

*‘The Government ought to declare it to be part of the national policy th?it this
country is not to be regarded as an emigration field, that no more immigrants (as
distinguished from visitors) can be admitted, and that immigrants must return
whence they came. This must apply to black men from the British West Indies as
well as from the United States.

“In our own country the tolerance which is exhibited towards the problem (of
mixture) is due not to far-fetched ideas of racial equality, but to slackness.**

In apparent contradiction of the first paragraph, note The Keys, vol. viii, p. 22 :

“West Indians, who requested to be returned home in the days of the Great War,
were denied return passage g^nd emphatically told ‘This (England) is your home, you
belong h?rc*.*’

6o

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

were serious difficulties in respect to repatriation, partly owing to
family obligations and partly to the strong protests of the boarding-
house keepers, to whom the coloured men were in an advanced
state of indebtedness. They had literally been kept by their
landlords since the Armistice and the loss of their war-work, in
the expectation that the Government would provide some
economic solution or help in the problem. These boarding-house
keepers now threatened to eject their clients — a possibility
viewed with as much alarm by the authorities as by the coloured
men themselves. Finally, the situation was settled, at least
partially, by an official grant of money to help out the boarding-
house keepers, and by the repatriation of men who had not
established an English domicile.

5. White and Coloured Competition for Jobs

In subsequent years the history and experience of the Cardiff
coloured community have been similar to, and in some respects
even more arduous than, those of the coloured communities
in other ports of the kingdom. Fundamentally, their history
depends to a very large extent upon the history during the 1921-
1938 period of the British shipping industry itself — a story of a
rather out-of-date merchant fleet meeting fierce and highly
subsidized foreign competition for fewer and fewer freights,
with diminishing profits, and unemployment fluctuating always
around a high level. ^ In sociological terms, the ramifications
of this situation showed themselves in the form of most bitter
economic competition between white and coloured seamen for the
greatly reduced number of jobs available. Moreover, the fact that
the shipping depression was only one aspect of a general world
trade slump meant that enhanced unemployment in seafaring
coincided with unemployment in most other, especially manual,
occupations, and rendered industrial migration, slight among
seamen in any case, virtually impossible.^ It was a struggle in

^ For a short but interesting account of the shipping industry during the period
in question, written from the point of view of the British shipowner, see R. H. Thornton,
British Shining,

* For example, one possible outlet, the South W^lcs coalfields, in which a number

HISTORICAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 6 1

which the white and majority group was bound all the time to
possess the upper hand over the minority and ostensibly alien
section. The position of the latter was rendered even more
invidious by factors entirely beyond their control: the only
course open to British shipowners remaining in the market was
to keep labour costs as low as possible, and coloured firemen and
stokers, provided they could be signed on abroad, were consider-
ably cheaper than white seamen. ^ The coloured seamen resident
or domiciled in Britain fell, therefore, between two stools. On
the one hand, the uniform operation (except in one or two specific
instances) of the National Maritime scale from all United
Kingdom ports meant that their labour found no more favour
in the eyes of shipowners and employers than that of the white
sailor. On the other, they were looked upon by the white unions
not as a section of the same labouring class striving for a liveli-
hood on exactly the same basis as any other union member, but
as the representatives of an altogether different and competitive
category, which directly or indirectly was responsible for keeping
white seamen out of work, and forcing down their standards of
living. Plainly and politically inept as it is, this psychological
association has affected the attitude of the unions for many years,
and, largely as a result of it, individual as well as group rela-

of coloured men had previously worked, were themselves suffering an unparalleled
state of inactivity.

Some idea of the wider industrial implications of the coal slump can be gained
from the fact that at Cardiff itself exports of coal and coke, which totalled some loj
million tons in 1913, were only 8.J million tons in 1923. During 1930 they fell to less
than million tons, a figure lower than that recorded in any “normal” year (i.e.
excluding wartime or industrial disputes). The interdependence of the coal and
shipping industries at Cardiff is shown by the fact that Cardiff’s prosperity peak was
reached when the demand for steam coal was at its maximum. Unemployment in
the steam coal valleys has been paralleled by depression at Cardiff. (Abstracted from
An Industrial Survey of South Wales, Marquand, 1932.)

^ cf. Thornton, op. cit., p. 219, et seq. This writer points out that the shipping
industry is one in which the vast majority of costs are common to all competitors and
thereby intensify competition in respect of the remainder. Revenue in terms of
freights, and port expenses, are the same for all, and all that is left with which to
compete is the initial cost and upkeep of the ship and the pay and maintenance of the
crew. The same writer stresses particularly the “injustice” of the high labour costs
which the British shipowner is expected to bear. “How then is the British shipowner
expected to compete? In the United States and Germany the liability has been passed
on to the general taxpayer and the shipowner is compensated for his high labour costs.
No such suggestion has been made in Great Britain. We are merely told by one set
of people that our mercantile marine is an essential national asset, and by another
that the employment of any but British seamen is a shoddy and unpatriotic act.
Neither party offers any solution to the question of how the national asset is to be
maintained, if its operating costs are compulsorily higher than those of its com-
petitors. . . .”

62

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

tions between white and coloured seamen have been rendered
demonstrably bitter as well as uncomprehending on both sides. ^

6 . Some Political Repercussions

The battle was fought out by the unions and their spokesmen
both inside and outside the House of Commons throughout the
depression, beginning as early as February 1919 on lines which
were to be repeated over and over again in the years following ^
and which seem to add very little to the original points. The
procedure and the mechanism stand out clearly. It is the role
of the Labour or Opposition representative to draw the attention
of the Government to (a) the increasing numbers of alien ^
workers employed in the industry; (b) the displacement of British
seamen by coloured crews; and (c) to suggest various legislative
measures of correction, either by the employment of more

^ cf. Commander Kenworthy, M.P., in the House of Commons, August, 1923.
“Will the Rt. Hon. gentleman bear in mind that there is a great deal of unemploy-
ment among white seamen in our ports, and that it is very irritating to them to see
black crews being continually shipped?” (Hansard, vol. clxvi, 1923.)

See also the repeated remarks of Labour spokesmen during the events leading up
to the British Shipping Assistance Act of 1935, as well as later sections of this book
relating to the effect of the Act on the coloured community; and for a final comment
on the other point of view, note the following vigorous remarks of a writer in the
journal of the League of Coloured Peoples (W. G. Brown, The Keys, vol. iii, p. 21).
“Thus a new monument to economic ignorance and racial animosity rises in England.
Fresh, vigorous and dynamic, abundantly nourished by the poisons of the depressions,
this tower threatens all intelligent attitudes, and submerges the vital problems still
unsettled among shipping labourers. Envious brutality is ever that way. It has
recruited as fellow-artisans in this hostile construction, some strange bed-fellows.
The Trade Unions, the Police and the Shipowners appear to co-operate smoothly
in barring Colonial Seamen from signing on ships at Cardiff. The legislative history
of this policy has been traced chronologically, and the emphasis placed upon the
stipulation to carry only British seamen which accompanied the two million pound
grant to the hard hit shipping industry. These plans and methods were never unknown
to the coloured seamen. . . .

* It took the form of a complaint from Mr. Neil Maclean, M.P., to the effect that
the British crew of the Brocklebank liner “Malancha” had been paid off in favour
of an Asiatic one. As an instance; in the old crew the British chief cook was paid
{,20 per month, the Asiatic one was taken on at £5 per month, etc.

The case in point, fairly typical of many others, seems to illustrate one of the gaps
left by the National Maritime Board machinery. It was possible, apparently, for a
shipowner to enter into a further agreement with a seaman signed on Lascar articles,
i.e. as a native of India, on his arrival in the United Kingdom, provided the new
agreement was for a voyage to India. This naturally meant a rate of pay lower than
the N.M.B. rate ex United Kingdom, (cf. Halsbury’s Statutes of England, p. 2 1 .)

* With, as will be clear from the text, no little disregard for the exact significance
of the term “alien”, as when Col. Ropner in the debate on the Shipping Assistance
Act pointed out to Mr. Greenwood that the latter’s complaint of alien seamen being
employed in “great numbers” amounted to no more than two per cent, of the whole.

HISTORICAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 63

British seamen or by the increase of coloured wages. To these
criticisms the Government spokesman has three main replies:
firstly, the amount of alien labour is really very small indeed,
since the greater part of it is British, i.e., members (though, of
course, non-European) of the British Empire; secondly, it is
plainly not policy to discriminate between British subjects;^
and thirdly, that as an industrial matter, it is beyond the scope
of Government interference and is rather one for employers and
unions to decide between them. To these somewhat unimagina-
tive exchanges there are a few variant themes. ^ Champions
of white labour offer supplementary reasons for the removal
of coloured labour on the ground of the moral undesirability
of its presence in this country, and of its cost to the taxpayer.
Government spokesmen, on the other hand, apparently labour
under a chronic inability to provide exact statistical proportions
of coloured and white British seamen.

7. The Aliens Orders, 1920 and 1925, and Their

Application

It is mainly in the light of these complaints and debates,
perhaps, that we should interpret contemporary legislation,
such as the Aliens Order of 1920, and its successor, more signifi-
cant so far as the present study is concerned, the Special Restric-
tion (Coloured Alien Seamen) Order of 1925. The latter was an
application of the older Aliens Restriction Act of 1914, whose
object was the supervision of aliens resident in this country. The
more specific aim of the former — the 1920 enactment — was the

^ ibid. See also Dr. Burgin’s remarks as Parliamentary Secretary to the B.O.T.
in the above mentioned debate. Hansard, vol. 295.

“A large percentage of these coloured men are British subjects, and this committee
will hesitate a long time before it begins to examine British nationality and put it
into grades and classifications. It is no good talking about the brotherhood of men
and suggest that there is some difference between a white British subject and a coloured
British subject.”

To this Mr. Greenwood interjected: “A difference in wages.”

* The critic of the British Parliamentary form of government will find ample
material in the frequent and wordy skirmishes over this matter, which, shorn of its
political implications, does not seem unduly weighty in its sociological and economic
implications. Indeed, the impartial stiident of parliamentary literature might well
come to the conclusion that the main function of British constitutional procedure is
to maintain the general social and political status quo intact as long as possible, and to
defer any legislation tending towards its dbruption. cf. inter alia^ Hansard^ vols.
i6fi and 170.

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

64

restriction of further alien immigrants to this country, unless
they were in a position to support themselves and their dependants.
The special force of this Order lay in the power it gave the Police
to impose various restrictions on aliens, to arrest them without
warrant, and to close certain clubs and restaurants.^ Article 6
of the Act, however, lays it down that its provisions shall not
apply to any alien seaman not resident in the United Kingdom,
or to any alien who has been in the United Kingdom not more
than two months since the date of his last arrival. ^ The succeed-
ing and more significant Order of 1925 had the quite specific
purpose of checking the influx of alien seamen, and in certain
cases its effect, if not its provisions, went much further. Briefly,
it brought coloured alien seamen into line with other aliens,
and obliged them to register in accordance with provisions made
under the 1920 Order.

The significant feature arising out of all this was that in
Cardiff the 1925 Order was made applicable to all coloured
seamen there, and obliged them all, irrespective of nationality
and domicile, to register with the Police. This meant that, in
effect, not only had alien seamen wishing to establish domicile
in this country to prove their nationality and carry a registration
card about with them; but that in Cardiff the onus was on all
coloured individuals to do the same. It meant in some cases that
an alien who had been admitted before 1925 and was in possession
of a registration certificate from the Police was actually better
off than a coloured British subject who was unable to prove
his identity." In the latter eventuality, a passport was almost
invariably refused, if the examiner was at all biassed. The man
was then in the position of an alien, and might not be granted a
certificate unless he could prove residence in this country before
the Order was issued. As an alien he could be deported at any
time, though, paradoxically enough, he gained thereby a small

^ Another important provision of the Act was to place on the alien an obligation
to register with the Police and to obtain a Registration Certificate, which the Police
could demand to be shown. Separate articles provided, also, that every alien should
be in possession of a passport furnished with a photograph and duly issued not more
than five years before the date of arrival, or some other document establishing his
identity and nationality.

^ But non-resident alien seamen who landed for discharge in the United Kingdom
were under obligation to report to the Registration Officer.

® i.e. by documentary proof. A number of the men came from districts or tribes
in Colonial countries where few, if any, can write, and there is no system of registra-
tion^

HISTORICAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 65

advantage from the point of view of employment over a passport-
holding British subject. ^

A large number of the Cardiff men possessed British passports,
birth certificates, army and naval discharges from the 1914 war,
and other evidences of nationality, and it appears therefore that
in making them register as aliens the Police were under a complete
misapprehension as to the nature of the Acts in question, and
how they were to be applied. Satisfied, however, in their own
minds that these enactments automatically made an alien of
every coloured seamen in Cardiff, they went zealously to work.
Threats of arrest and imprisonment were not uncommon if a
man refused to deliver his passport on demand. In one case,
a seaman whose passport had been taken away refused to accept
an Aliens Card. He was told that he would be placed under
arrest if he did not accept it, and upon inquiring how this could
be done, was informed that as he was now without a passport,
a Continuous Certificate of Discharge, or an Identity Card (all
of which were in the hands of the Police), it would be an easy
matter to arrest him outside the station for being on British
territory without the necessary authority.^ One section of the
community, the West Indians, were told that the Acts were not

^ If such a passport expires during the voyage it may be withdrawn, and the man
not allowed to land in this country. His employer would then have to bear the expense
of transporting him back to his own country, or any other that will accept him (cf. the
Merchant Shipping Act of 1898). The provision applies specifically in the case
of a native of any country in Africa or Asia, and the shipowner would also be called
upon to defray the cost of his keep, should he become chargeable on the poor rate.

^ The following is a specimen case study:

“X came to England in 1915, he had no passport, but in 1922 he had one issued
as he intended to go to France. Subsequently, he decided to become a seaman and
was engaged on a Manchester Liner which traded between Canada and Manchester.
He obtained this job solely on account of the fact that he was able to produce a pass-
port. When he arrived in Manchester, the Immigration Officer came aboard, and
expressed surprise at seeing X with a passport. ‘You are X, aren’t you?* he said to
him. ‘Got a passport? You have no damn right having a British passport.’ The
Captain who had X’s passport then gave it to the Immigration Officer who said he
would send it to Liverpool to be endorsed. It was impossible for X to be paid off
until his passport returned from Liverpool, and he was, therefore, compelled to remain
on board for the time being. After a few days he decided to investigate why the pass-
port had not been returned. He, therefore, went to the Immigration Officer and made
inquiries about his passport. This official suggested that X should see the Police,
X followed his advice and went to the Police Headquarters, armed with his discharge
and identity books. The official whom he saw took these books and stamped the word
‘Alien’ on every leaf. The official then brought out an Alien card which had not
already been prepared and requested X to apply his thumb to it. This X refused to
do, arguing that such a proceeding was only necessary in the case of men who could
not write. The Inspector threatened to arrest him if he did not do as he was told.
When X asked how that could be done, the Inspector replied ‘By sending you out
pf the Station, and then arresting you for being on British soil illegally.’ The Shipping

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

aimed at them at all, but rather at the Arabs, and being thus
placed in a false position of security, submitted to registration
without protest. Others were led to think that registration was a
mere formality which every seaman had to undergo, and as a
result fell victims to the other snares. They were so convinced
that the procedure did not affect their status as British subjects,
that a few who had hitherto escaped the attention of the Police
voluntarily registered themselves as aliens in order to observe
what they thought to be the requirements of the law. In some
rather extreme cases, the Police assured the possessors of such
formal and evidential documents as have been already mentioned
that these were now of no avail, as a new Act had come into force
by which all coloured seamen became aliens and had compulsorily
to be registered as such. Very often, too, men were compelled to
accept Aliens Cards at the end of a voyage by virtue of threats
to withhold their pay, and in the majority of cases (according to
the report of an inquiry into the matter, subsequently carried out
by the League of Coloured Peoples — seepp. 75, 78) it wasthepolicy
of the shipowners, acting in conjunction with the Police, to
refuse to pay a coloured seaman until he presented an Alien’s
Certificate of Registration. ^

One of the Cardiff members. Captain Evans, pointed out
some of these discrepancies in the House of Commons, indicating
that through no fault of their own the coloured men now lacked
any means of asserting their British nationality. The Home
Secretary’s reply was a legalist one. Where passports were out of
date or otherwise invalid, the holder had been advised to register
in the absence of satisfactory proof of his identity and nationality.
Discharge books could not be accepted, as entries in them were
based on statements made by the holder himself. The existence
or otherwise of proof that a seaman had been born in Somaliland
was immaterial in any case, as such an individual was a “pro-

Federation brought pressure to bear on X and he eventually consented to take out an
Aliens card.

“He then wrote to Barbadoes for a birth certificate, and when it arrived he took
it to the Sergeant in charge at the Station to show that he (X) was really born in
Barbadoes. The Sergeant pretended to examine the certificate, and suddenly stamped
the word ‘Alien’ on the back. X then pasted a piece of paper over the word Alien,
and sent the certificate to the Home Secretary, who punched a hole through the
certificate at the spot where the word ‘alien* still appeared visible through the bit of
paper pasted over it. . . (Communicated and abstracted from MS. in connection
with the League of Coloured People’s Inquiry into the matter, cf. The Keys,)

^ cf. The Keysy pp. 19-20.

HISTORICAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 67

tected person”. He considered that the marking of registration
certificates with the word “Seaman” should sufficiently dis-
tinguish those who held them from persons possessing certificates
issued under the ordinary provisions of the Aliens Order.

8. The Coloured Population as a “Moral” Problem

It has been suggested that the unions were the mainspring
of the above legislative measures, and the wider context of
events was perhaps significant.’^ No headway had been made
in the meantime against either the laying-up of British shipping
or the rising figures of unemployment, which by 1931-33 included
one out of every three registered seamen in Great Britain. ^
Government solicitude over the employment of white seamen
under tropical conditions was probably a small consolation in the
existing circumstances to the stokers who had been replaced by
Lascars over the routes concerned.^ Natural indignation at

^ ibid, p. 20. See also later paragraphs of this book. “The decision to employ
white labour exclusively in the shipping industry of Great Britain was not arrived
at suddenly or with undue haste. It was the outcome of a mature consideration of the
trend of certain events which are intimately connected with the shipping industry
. . . The plan of having these men registered as Aliens was devised and put into
operation by legislative measures enacted through the influence of the Trade Unions
and other labour organizations.” {op. cit. The Keys, p. 20.)

^ See the chart on p. 68 for a picture of the unemployment situation during the
whole of the inter- war period. So far as local conditions at the five ports of Newport,
Cardiff, Penarth, Barry and Swansea are concerned, it appears that in 1930, 41.4%
of the insured seamen were unemployed, and in December 1937, two years after the
Shipping Assistance Act (see below), there were still 32.3% unemployed (abstracted
from Industrial South Wales, Philip Margery).

Various legislative devices were suggested, but the old difficulties remained.
Plain legislation to the effect that British registered ships should carry a certain
number of British seamen would mean simply that a larger number of ships would
be registered abroad, and actually make the situation worse by leading to more
unemployment. A bill to debar a shipmaster under a penalty of £500 from flying the
Red Ensign, unless 95% of his crew were British, does not seem to have raised much
enthusiasm, although the idea was taken more seriously when the payment of a cash
subsidy was put alongside the flying of the national emblem some ten years later.

^ cf. Mr. Runciman’s reply to questions on this point (Hansard, vol. 260). It is
worth recalling that white men were employed below deck as firemen and stokers
on the West African run up to the end of last century, and the practice of employing
Negro stokers in their place arose in a rather interesting manner. It was the custom
for a white seaman who wished to go ashore at Freetown to pay an African a few
pence a day to do his job in the stokehold, thereby training the latter in the job.
When, as happened more frequently in those days, a white member of the crew fell
ill at the port, an African would take his place in the ship and complete the voyage.

In this way it soon became the custom to sign on coloured men in this trade, and
there was much to commend it from the point of view of the engineer as well as the
employer. Coloured labour was not only cheaper, but often more docile than white

68

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

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these and similar events was also the reeison, probably, for the
re-focussing of contemporary attention on various “moral”

labour. It is claimed, moreover, that a coloured crew drinks far less and gives less
trouble, and is prepared to work harder than a white crew. (For a further comment
to this effect see Thornton, op, cit,)

HISTORICAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 69

problems, which were said to result from the presence of the
coloured men in the ports. The dependence of coloured children
on the Public Assistance Committee at such places as Cardiff,
Liverpool, and Swansea was pointed out to the Home Secretary,
and he was asked to tighten up the regulations in regard to aliens
coming to this country on contract.^ The wider implications
of the problem had been agitating the local councils for some
time, and the fairly general consensus of opinion was that its
increasing size was due to certain laxities in the regulations
governing the supervision and control of licensed houses and
cafes in the dock area. ^ At the same time it became evident that
the dependence on public assistance of coloured children was
due not only to the depressed economic circumstances of the
households to which they belonged, but to a widespread pre-
judice against their own employment in virtually any sphere but
seafaring. The Cardiff Juvenile Employment Committee stressed
this in the following words:

“Little difficulty is experienced (in regard to the coloured children) during
school-days, as they mix quite freely with the white children, and usually
belong to homes which are at least equal in condition and parental super-
vision and care to those of the white children. It is when they leave school
and desire to enter industry that the difficulties arise. . . . The industrial
problem is much more acute in relation to girls, for though the boys arc not as
easily placed as the white boys, there is not the same prejudice shown to the
coloured by male workers as by female workers. A fair proportion of the boys
eventually go to sea after an interval of some months after leaving school.

^ Hansard, vol. 344.

^ cf. Report of Cardiff Special Watch Committee^ ist January, 1929, which records the
following resolution:

“That in view of the grave social evils resulting from the presence in the ports of
this country of large communities of coloured seamen, H.M. Government be urged
to promote legislation to deal with the matter. . .

Similarly, a few months later at a joint conference of the British Social Hygiene
Council and the British Council for the Welfare of the Merchant Marine, it was de-
cided to draw the attention of the Government (a) to the desirability of making the
hours of refreshment houses the same as those known as “permitted hours** under the
Licensing Acts, or, alternatively, that Licensees of refreshment houses should receive a
Licensing Justices* Certificate prior to being granted an Excise License; (b) that in
view of the increase in the number of half-caste children in seaport towns, and of the
future difficulty of finding employment for sons and daughters of coloured seamen who
visit these shores, the Government should immediately take steps to enquire into the
problem with a view to mitigating the evil, etc.

In a further report to the Watch Committee, the Chief Constable of Cardiff said
in support of these recommendations:

“I am convinced that if the recommendations . . . are adopted by the Govern-
ment, they will have the effect of abolishing the undesirable caf6s which form the
cloak for the conduct which gives rise to the greater problem of the half-caste children.

“Nothing short of legislative action will deal with this part of the problem, and it
is a responsibility which the Legislature will sooner or later have to face.**

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

70

In regard to girls, the Committee are faced with a serious difficulty, as they
are not usually acceptable in factories and there is only the poorest type of
domestic service open to them.

“An industrial survey is being conducted at the present time (1929), and
employers are being approached with a view to the absorption of some of these
girls in their works and factories, but the response is far from reassuring. The
difficulty is not with the employers, but with the white girls employed, who
strongly object to the suggestion of the introduction of half-castes. It is a very
sad commentary on the Christian spirit shown, and indicates that the Colour
Bar is still very strong in this country.” *

A committee and a number of special sub-committees were
formed at about the same time under the auspices of the Local
Education Authority, whose objects were: (a) to deal with the
problem of securing employment for coloured juveniles, and to
obtain the active co-operation of employers for this purpose;
(b) to strengthen the existing social and religious organizations
working in the coloured area, and to introduce additional
activities, if necessary, so that the leisure of these young people
might be adequately safeguarded; and (c) to deal with the
problem from a larger and more comprehensive standpoint,
and to consider causes and effects from the national angle.
The sub-committees reported in due course that they had been
able to increase existing social activities, and even to augment
organizations providing them, but that the difficult problem of
finding work for the children of both sexes, more particularly
the half-caste girls, remained.^ “The Colour problem in the
ports,” as it was called, prompted a rather more extensive
inquiry, which was carried out, mainly in Liverpool, by Miss
M. E. Fletcher, a student of the Liverpool School of Social
Science. Miss Fletcher visited a number of other ports in addition,
and her report produces a great deal of evidence in support of
the latter point. In Liverpool she conducted an experimental
census on the prospects of the employment of coloured juveniles.
Out of a total of 119 firms to which she wrote, no reply was
received from 63, and negative replies from 45.®

^ City of Cardiff Education Committee. 14th Report of the Juvenile Employment
Committee, July 31st, 1929, pp. 14-16.

* Ibid.^ reports issued in 1931 and 1932.

* M. E. Fletcher. Report on an Investigation into the Colour Problem in Liverpool and
Other Ports, 1930. Issued by the Liverpool Association for the Welfare of Half-Caste
Children.

In addition, similar letters were sent to employers of domestic servants. The list
was compiled from a list of people applying for servants to the Juvenile Employment
Bureau. “The enquiry showed, however, that very few women were willing to make

HISTORICAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND

71

9. The Gall for Government Aid to Seamen and Shipping

In the meantime, questions on the subject of the replacement
of white crews by Arabs, Chinese and those of other coloured
nationalities continued to multiply, and it was increasingly
urged that British seamen only should be employed on British
ships. The Minister could only point to the steadily decreasing
numbers of foreigners who found jobs under the British ensign
(see Table, p. 72), but in all this the word “British” was so
obvious a stumbling-block that one member asked flatly for
the exclusion of all save “English subjects from English ships”
(1933). Despite scruples about anti-British discrimination, the
iniquities arising out of the wage differences were becoming
obvious to everybody except the shipowners.^ Moreover,
Government interference had become as necessary from the point
of view of the latter as it was from that of their employees. Dis-
counting ships which had been broken up for scrap or sold to
foreigners, by October 1932 British tonnage laid up amounted
to some 860 ships of over two million tons, ^ and a slight allevia-
tion in the two following years did not constitute a sufficient
guarantee of the tramp industry’s survival. The Government’s
terms were enacted in the shape of the British Shipping
(Assistance) Act of 1935, and provided a compromise by which
both parties, shipowners and seamen, were to be salvaged at the
taxpayer’s expense. The whole purpose of this Act was to enable

the experiment of engaging a coloured girl. In contrast to this situation, the Juvenile
Employment Officer stated that about 50% of the white boys applying from this area
are eventually placed. Openings for white girls from the district where most of the
coloured people live were distinctly good.’*

The possibilities of shore labour for the adult coloured men were also investigated.
Nineteen firms, judged appropriate, were circularized. Out of the seventeen which
replied, thirteen did not employ any coloured men and had never done so; two had
done so during the war, but had replaced them by white labour when this was avail-
able. Only two were found who were then employing Negroes, and these had only
eleven coloured employees between them.

The Report did not receive a good reception from the coloured people themselves,
possibly because its author appears to lay particular stress on certain features of the
community’s social and sexual behaviour, which were perhaps in need of further
analysis and some qualification. When, as it would appear was the case here, a great
deal of the relevant data was obtained at second hand, the danger of accentuating
supposedly peculiar and even anti-social characteristics is a very real one, and it
is not lessened in any real sense by the inclusion, as objective comment, of the opinions
of police officials.

^ It was asserted in 1935, for example, that it was possible for shipowners signing
on Lascars outside Europe to employ them at one quarter of the standard National
Maritime Board wage.

‘ Chamber of Shipping Annual Reports,

72

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

Employment on British Ships
(By percentages)

1911

1921

1930

1931

1932

1936

British .

Other Parts of the
Empire

73-9

57-6

5-6

•[65.5

{64.4

{65.8

•[72.6

Foreigners

13.8

7-7

7.4

6.6

54

3-2

Lascars

ia.3

29.1

27.1

29.0

28.8

24.2

N.B. — Lascars include both citizens and non-citizens of the British
Empire. The term is inclusive of Indian and East African
nationalities.

the tramp owner to meet foreign competition, and by a limitation
of shipping to raise freight rates. The shipowners were to scrap
so much surplus tonnage, and in return the Government would
make them a number of subsidy payments, amounting in all
to £2 millions. These payments and the scheme in general were
to be administered by a committee of representative shipowners
(known as the Tramp Shipping Administrative Committee), so
as to promote co-operation and minimize competition between
British owners.

This body, the T.S.A.C., claims that the granting of the
subsidy on conditions which ensured the organization of the
industry and the regulation both of freight and tonnage supply
immediately checked depressive tendencies and, in fact, came just
in time to save British tramp shipping from disaster.^ Possibly,
as another commentator has suggested, the situation of the British
owner was aided also by other and international factors, such as
the preoccupations of Greek and Italian owners at the time.^

^ cf. ^th Report of the Tramp Administrative Committee^ H.M.S.O., 1938.

“The five years ending in 1934 had been the worst experienced in the history of
British shipping. Since 1929 there had been a continuous and unprecedented shrink-
age in the volume of overseas trade as compared with only a moderate decrease in the
large surplus of world tonnage. As a result, the world depression fell in its full effect
upon the open freight market upon which Tramp owners operate. In 1933-34 the
freight index was 25-30% below the 1929 level, the full effect of which was seen in the
laying up by April, 1935, of 126 British tramp vessels or 396,000 gross tons of British
shipping, and the increasing transfer of British vessels to foreign flags. In the desper-
ate competition of the world’s increased tonnage for a share in reduced trade, freights
were forced down to a level which for most ships failed to cover even bare operating
costs.”

* cf. W. Arthur Lewis, Economicay vol. 8, 1941. “The Inter-relations of Shipping
Freights.”

HISTORICAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 73

The fact remains, nevertheless, that the middle and latter part
of 1935 brought such a recovery both in terms of shipping and
seamen employed that there was actually a shortage in some
ranks of seamen at the south-western ports. In view of the fact
that the average number of men unemployed during 1935 at the
Cardiff Bute Docks was 5,236, the latter point obviously requires
some explanation. It is to be found in the terms regulating the
payment of the subsidy itself, to the effect that when it was
claimed, first preference should be given to firemen and seamen
of British nationality; though in a crew of 31-35, not more than
two men might be non-British, provided they had been in British
employment for five years. ^

10 Effect of the Shipping Act on the Coloured
Community

Some shipowners went so far as to anticipate the latter clause
of the Act. The trouble started when two ships of the Tatham
Shipping Line, which had previously carried all-coloured crews
of Malays on deck, and West Indians and Africans below, changed
their policy and refused to sign on men who were unable to
identify themselves, although a Board of Trade official was
willing to pass any one brought to him by the Captain who had a
continuous discharge book. The attitude of the local union
officials was that owners had a perfect right to sign on whom they
wished.^ Political tension rapidly increased, and on Mr.

^ cf. Second Industrial Survey of South Wales. This was the sop it was necessary to
offer the Labour interests. In the debates preceding the enactment, the subsidy
proposals came in for very strong criticism from the Opposition Benches, whose
attitude was made quite clear in Mr. Neil Maclean’s remark to the effect that no
subsidy ought to be given to British shipping so long as there was a single white
British seaman unemployed. (Hansard, vol. 245. Debate on the Shipping Assistance
Act.)

* Previously, the donkeyman, a West Indian, had always picked the crew. This
time he did the same and took them to Barry to sign on. The Shipping Federation
Officer (representative of the owners) asked each man for his birth certificate or
passport, and if unable to show these the men were not signed on. The ship was
delayed for a day in order to get in touch with the Superintendent of the company,
whose reply was that these were owner’s orders and must be carried out. In the
meantime, a sister ship at Cardiff signed on two Malay sailors, brought them ashore
two days later, and paid them off with a month’s wages. They were told they could
not sail without passports. That afternoon, however, having difficulty in getting
white firemen, the company signed on a coloured crew again without passports, and
the ship sailed. (From the files of the League of Coloured Peoples, London.)

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

74

Greenwood’s remark in the House that he was glad to hear a
report that alien seamen would not be given places in British
ships, and Mr. West, another Labour member, making a strong
attack on Chinese, Lascars and “coloured seamen” in general,
there was a rush on the part of the men concerned to obtain
naturalization. In Cardiff, where some one thousand applica-
tions were received, ^ the reason for this trepidation was obvious.
As a result of the local interpretation of the Aliens Order, these
men now held no documents apart from their cards and no means
of proving their British place of origin. Their present status
meant, in effect, exclusion from employment on subsidized ships,
despite the fact that most of them had worked regularly for
Cardiff owners. Nor were matters long in coming to a head in the
port. Union officials intervened against the engagement of
coloured firemen, and a serious disturbance at the docks was only
just averted.^

From the point of view of the coloured seamen, there was
certainly every cause for alarm, for the sequence of events was
quite drastic in its effects. Almost by a single stroke of the pen,
many hundreds of families were deprived of their only means of
livelihood, and as the Second Industrial Survey of South Wales
points out:

“Unemployment was, therefore, unfairly concentrated upon these men,
many cases of severe hardship occurred, and there was much discontent amongst
them. . . .

“. . . Heavy unemployment among the Coloured population of Cardiff
creates a special problem of peculiar difficulty; and it is evident that employ-
ment at sea is almost the sole opening available to these people.” ®

Some idea of the situation can be gained from the fact that
on the 1 1 th June, 1936, for example, out of a total of 690 un-
employed firemen on the Cardiff Docks Register, 599 were
coloured men. However, in the face of this common crisis in their
affairs, the men set aside the religious and other differences

^ See Report in the Morning Post, April 2nd, 1935.

* The ship involved was the S.S. “Ethel Radcliffe**, which on the intervention of
the League of Coloured Peoples (see the account of the later inquiry), with the Chair-
man of the T.A.S.C. and the shipping company, eventually sailed with the coloured
members of her crew. The incident was reported under large headlines in the daily
press, e.g. “Cardiff Colour Bar causes Riot“ — “An S.O.S. telephoned from the signing-
on offices at the Cardiff docks to-day, averted serious rioting between coloured
seamen and British seamen. . .

^op. ciU vol. 3, p. 217.

HISTORICAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 75

ordinarily emphasized within the community, and a repre-
sentative committee, consisting of spokesmen from all the main
sections, Africans, West Indians, Arabs, Somalis and Malays,
was appointed. This organization, calling itself the Coloured
Seamen’s Union, sent one of its number, Mr. H. O’Connell, to
London to seek assistance, which he obtained in the form of an
inquiry into the naturalization question.^ Thirty-five extreme
cases were thoroughly studied to expose the misapplication of the
Special Restriction Order, and out of the twelve of these sub-
sequently brought to the notice of the Home Secretary, seven
men immediately had their national status restored. It was
estimated at this time that the effect of the Order had been to
force some 1,500 men to carry the “Seaman” -inscribed Alien
card about with them, and the Table on page 76 gives some idea
of the subsequent readjustment. The term “Live Register” is
used to indicate the active register which contains the names of
coloured seamen either ashore or at sea at the time it is taken.
It will be seen that between 1935 and 1937, some 1,600 names
were removed, and of these it may be assumed that the greater
proportion became naturalized; or, as in the circumstances it
seems more accurate to put it, had their national status restored
to them.^

^ Mr. O’Connell secured the intervention of the League of Coloured Peoples and
various members of the House of Commons, and Mr. Maxton, speaking in the
debate on the Government’s rearmament proposals in 1935, took the opportunity of
pointing out that in the case of the coloured seamen, the rights and liberties of subjects
of the British Empire had been usurped rather than defended. The League’s in-
vestigators claimed that they found in Cardiff:

“A canvas crowded with strange figures; shipowners, aldermen, police, trade
unionists, pulling from various angles a net which has entangled people from all over
the British Empire. We lived in a compact community ... a settled, orderly com-
munity, trying with desperate success to keep respectable homes under depressing
conditions. . . . We met men as British as any Englishman, forced by fraud to register
as aliens, after living here since the war; charges and counter-charges; misleading
newspaper reports; men in authority bellowing ‘repatriation’; muttered resentment
against British children being called ‘half-castes’; and dominating everything, an
imminent danger that deliberate trickery would mean for these men and their families
expulsion from British shipping and ultimately from Britain.” {The Keys, p. 4.)

* According to the investigators, the following cases were amongst the material
they examined: eight persons who were in lawful possession of British passports;
seven persons who had been in regular and lawful possession of British passports;
thirteen persons, claiming British nationality, who were in lawful and regular possession
of British Mercantile Marine Identification Certificates; fifteen persons with honour-
able records for Military Service, mainly in the 1914 war; nineteen persons who had
lived in Britain longer than ten years, of whom three had resided here thirty years or
more; twelve from twenty to twenty-nine years; and four between ten and twenty
years, (cf. G. W. Brown, “Investigation of Colonial Coloured Seamen in Cardiff”
The Keys^ pp. 18-19.)

76

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

Cardiff Live Register — Coloured “Alien” Seamen

«934

1935

1936

1937

00

CO

o>

Arabs .

^ 993

955

859

297

209

Somalis

232

240

124

116

100

Portuguese .

72

67

61

23

21

Indians

135

124

118

»7

21

Malays

88

83

66

45

4J

Egyptians

39

37

36

20

»4

West Indians

328

277

196

51

47

Africans

372

346

266

159

160

Americans .

8

8

8

3

3

Panamanians

2

2

2

2

I

Peruvians

I

—

—

—

—

Brazilians

3

3

I

I

I

Maoris

. I

I

1

I

I

Others

42

34

25

3

3

Doubtful

153

142

138

98

87

Total.

. 2,469

2,319

I >905

835

709

II. The Part of the White Unions in the Controversy

It is difficult, in view of the several conflicting factors and
interests involved, to say how much of the situation described in
the preceding pages was actually engineered and how much of
it was inadvertent. From continuous complaints of the unions’
spokesmen in the House, and from official and unofficial attacks
on the coloured seamen outside, it is difficult to believe that the
Aliens Order and its aftermath did not have at least the passive
support of the white organizations. The National Union of
Seamen, however, contended that far from wishing to dispose
of the British-born coloured men, or at any rate the West Indians
and West Africans, they were actually fighting their battles.
They pointed to their specific recommendation, drawn up in
conjunction with the Transport and General Workers Union,
for the Trades Union Parliamentary Committee on the question
of shipping subsidies and the conditions of seamen against the

HISTORICAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 77

exclusion of domiciled British crews. ^ It is just possible, therefore,
that once again the word “British” (see p. 71), which to the
ordinary citizen of this country often does not convey any meaning
beyond a white citizen of the Empire, was mainly responsible
for the misunderstanding.^ In short, as the Seaman (the official
organ of the N.U.S.) subsequently admitted, too much was made
of the employment of aliens, as such, by union officials and other
white members of the labour organizations.^ There is certainly
no doubt that whatever may have been the appropriate view of
the problem at Headquarters, some of the local officials took full
advantage of the opportunity to urge coloured repatriation,
quoting the old argument of the latter’s expense to the public
rates. ^

^ cf. T.U. Pari. Comm, for the Shipp, and Waterside Industs. Memorandum prepared
by N. U. S. and Gen. Workers’ Union.

“No Government assistance of any kind should be given to those Shipowners
who are now making a practice of employing alien crews for their vessels, to the
exclusion of domiciled British crews. It should, therefore, be a condition of any
subsidy or other form of assistance that the crews of the vessels concerned should be
entirely manned by domiciled British seamen.” In his speech in the debate prior
to the Shipping Assistance Act, Mr. Greenwood also speaks of “domiciled seamen”.

^ If this was a genuine misunderstanding, the Union’s own report went quite a
long way to foster it. See, for example, the Report of the Manning Committee:

“Steadily during the last three years the percentage of Chinese and Africans
serving on British ships has increased — augmented by large numbers of Greeks,
Malays and Spaniards. Thousands of British seamen have grown desperate owing to
their enforced idleness, some having been ashore for over two years, and even now
there is little or no prospect of such men getting a ship in the near future. One impor-
tant shipping company in Liverpool, trading out East, has, during the past three
years, discharged over 700 white British sailors, firemen and catering ratings, and
replaced them by Chinamen . . .” {ibid.).

® cf. The Seaman, ist May, 1935. “I want to say right away that not only has the
question (of the employment of aliens) been seriously considered, but it has led to the
wholesale dismissal of alien seamen without regard to the length of their service in
ships of this country and without regard to the question of domicile . . . the men who
really displaced our men in very large numbers at vastly lower rates are the Lascars
(British and foreign) who number 42,475. This total does not, of course, include
Chinese, who also do not receive National Maritime Board rates. So great has been
the rush to get rid of the alien seamen by owners of ships entitled to the subsidies that
many injustices have occurred. For instance, in one or two cases. Irishmen who were
born in Southern Ireland have been classed as aliens and have been dismissed, while
men, and men of colour, who have sailed in our ships for many years and pay both
employment and health insurance have been dismissed.”

* cf. Western Mail and South Wales Echo, 17th April, 1935, which reported that
Mr. George Reed, Secretary of the local branch of the N.U.S., said that thousands of
coloured men had been “imported” into Cardiff without any restriction. If these
men were going to be displaced they should be repatriated. The question would
arise otherwise as to how they were to be kept. “About eight or nine thousand have
been brought to Cardiff by the shipowners, and surely they are not going to be put
on the rates?” He had prepared a memorandum on the subject in which he strongly
recommended repatriation.

78

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

12- Precarious Position of the Coloured Community

Eventually, as a result partly of increased ''naturalization”,
and partly of the declaration of a less ambiguous attitude towards
the matter by the N.U.S.^ the situation in regard to the employ-
ment of the coloured community was largely restored, but not,
as the Second Industrial Report points out, before severe hardship
had been undergone. It was estimated at the time of the League
of Coloured Peoples’ inquiry that some 8o per cent, of the men
had been on unemployment benefit most of the year from April
1934 to April 1935, and that their home life was reduced to a
bare subsistence level. The minimum comforts for women and
children were obviously lacking in many instances, and a
balanced diet was, and in a few cases had been for over four years,
absolutely impossible. The events as a whole left a mark of
indelible bitterness on the community itself, and its repercussions
(see p. 29) are strongly felt at the present day. The League of
Coloured Peoples’ commentary concludes:

“While the people are far from emaciated physically, there can be little
doubt that personal resources to withstand illness or an epidemic are entirely
wiped out. An epidemic beginning in Tiger Bay could sweep over the bridge
and menace the entire city; or, considered another way, an epidemic sweeping
from the City into the Bay would be relatively free to exhaust itself. No more
convincing realization of the economic stupidity saturating the Cardiff attempt
to reduce to starvation a section of the City’s population can be imagined than
such an unwanted catastrophe.

“Social development and cultural advancement is almost nil. Even church
attendance is denied one family, whose black father and brown children are
not welcomed. From families on all sides one hears declarations of a similar in-
difference to the Churches and missions in the Bay. Apparently there are no
prospects for absorption of these children in the responsible grooves of the
general social order. Secondary education and industrial employment are
practically closed to them. Unfortunately the sentiment of the city is to
reject and restrict the ‘half-castes’. A Cardiff public official is accused of
calling for legislation to ‘put a stop to the breeding of such children’. Expressed
opposition to receiving the girls as menials in domestic service, forces them to
positions where they are physically and financially exploited. One wonders
why such meagre social opportunities and cultural facilities do not foster
more drinking, rampant gambling, and unrestrained prostitution. These
social activities are to be found in every industrial centre, depression or no
depression, coloured or non-coloured. Cardiff is far from being an exception.
As it now stands, it is decidedly an uninspiring environment for an ever-
increasing child population.”

I W* Gf Brown, The Keys, p. 21.

HISTORICAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 79

The economic plight of the coloured population, thus
described, has indeed to be seen in perspective. The implications
of the 1935-36 trouble were severe because they considerably
accentuated what for a long time had been a chronic condition.
A large number of the men were continuously out of work, and,
having thus exhausted their Unemployment Benefit, were forced
on to the Relieving Officer for help. The same applied in the
case of seamen who, lacking domiciliary rights in this country,
were ineligible as subscribers to the Scheme itself. In 1930, for
example, the Public Assistance Committee allowed relief at the
rate of 5 /- per head per week on behalf of some 250 Arab and
300 Somali seamen and firemen, whose keep during a long period
of the shipping depression had brought their boarding-house
keepers to the end of their resources. ^ The latter undertook the
debt on behalf of their clients, and it was in fact honoured to a
considerable extent when trade improved.

These payments of out-relief to the coloured community
in general give some idea of the precarious nature of its economic
position throughout this period. If we accept broadly the dis-
tribution of population in the maritime and other wards, as
outlined at the close of the previous chapter, the illustration is
quite striking. The accompanying chart shows the approximate
average payment />er capita in the various wards of Cardiff during
the period 1932-39 inclusive. Nothing like precise population
figures are available for South Adamsdown, but it is suggested
that 5,000 persons is a reasonable figure for the half ward
comprising the area south of the Great Western Railway
bridge, and including Loudoun Square and the Patrick Street
sector. It will be noticed that Adamsdown Ward along with
Central Ward incurred the highest expenditure of any ward
in the city, and that the south end of the former ward shows
a per capita expenditure about one and a half times as great as
any ward.

^ Payments were made direct to the boarding-house master, it being understood
that this represented the bare cost of food and did not cover any payment for lodgings,
which the proprietors were willing to continue to provide. Careful inquiry was made
into each case, and recent arrivals in the town were excluded from the allowance.
The arrangement was continued for some 6-7 months, when application was made
by the Council in certain selected cases for certificates of deportation under the
Aliens Order. Thereupon, the boarding-house keepers approached the Committee
and undertook to remove the Arab seamen from chargeability if the Committee would
take no further action to deport them, and on the Committee agreeing, the relief was
discontinued {communicated).

8o

NEGROES m BRITAIN

The Cardiff P.A.C. authorities claim that no special scale
of relief was officially adopted to deal with these rather numerous
applications from the coloured men, but that generally speaking
the Relief sub-committees took the view that coloured seamen,
especially Arabs, were accustomed to a lower standard of living
than their white fellow- workers in the trade, and adjusted the
grants made accordingly. The Unemployment Assistance Board

Out Relief. RA C. 1932-1939 inclusive

GABALFA £0 3S

SOUTH £0 4S

CATHAYS and PENYLAN £0 46

PLASNEWYDO £ 0 ST

CANTON and RIVERSIDE £0 ST

LLANDAFF £0 75

GRANGETOWN £ 0 80

Average £097

ADAMSDOWN £! 44

CENTRAL £! 48

ADAMSDOWN SOUTH £2 44

at its advent adopted the same practice, and this meant in effect
that instead of the basic rate of 15/- per week allowed in the
case of a man living alone, a payment of 12/- per week was made
to those who were judged to be living “communally”, i.e.,
sharing a common pot. The differentiation was a source of
considerable dissatisfaction amongst members of the community,
who resented its implication that because a coloured man is able

HISTORICAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 8 1

to live more cheaply his needs are less great. ^ However, the policy
of adjustment was endorsed by the Minister of Health in a sub-
sequent answer in the House, ^ and from the point of view of the
Cardiff committee the administration of this kind of relief was not
without its complications. The authorities claim, in fact, that
their treatment was more generous than that at most other ports,
with the result that they had to cope with a gradually increasing
influx from other centres.®

13. Captain Richardson’s Survey|of Maritime Cardiff ^

It is natural, perhaps, though at the same time paradoxical,
that the peculiar circumstances of the community should have
invited the apparent censure as well as the curiosity of social
investigators. About the time of the Shipping subsidy. Captain
F. A. Richardson reported on the welfare and conditions of the
Mercantile Marine. In his anxiety to paint as graphic a picture
as possible of the social diseases, lack of amenities, under-employ-
ment and destitution common to all contemporary ports, Cardiff
undoubtedly provided him with a striking example, but un-
fortunately, the Captain seems to have interpreted it mainly
in terms of the coloured population as a special social problem.
Given such an angle, it is easy to see how, even unintentionally,
a picture is built up in which socially disapproved attributes of

^ It was pointed out that the benefit was small enough in any case: if a man pays
6/- for a room and i/6 for fuel (a normal claim), 7/6 is not too much for his other
needs, whether he lives communally or not. “To take 20% off his benefit, leaving
4/6 for food, etc., seems preposterous. The principle is unsound because anyway it
discourages economy; loss of 3 /-> benefit is enough to encourage men to live separately
once more, and a wholesale application of this principle would mean that a careful
housewife gets less benefit than a careless, wasteful woman.** (Quoted from The
Keys, vol. 5, No. 4, p. 7 -) .

One or two coloured men with whom the author discussed this past event went so
far as to assert that not only was a differential scale adopted as between white and
coloured, but also as between various coloured nationalities themselves. The purpose
of this was said to be “to set the coloured people against each other**. It is, of course,
possible that differently scaled payments were made according to the circumstances
of the case, but there is no eviclence to hand to indicate that the principle of adjust-
ment was extended in the way suggested, and it is probably best regarded as an
illustration of the working of the “racial myth**.

*cf. Hansard, vol. 346, April, 1939.

® A large number of seaports refused to grant outdoor relief at all, and offered
only institutional relief. South Shields was a notable example, with the result (it is
claimed) that after a few days in the Institution, the seamen took their discharge and
did not seek further assistance there.

4

82

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

an alien group not only stand out significantly, but seem to be a
direct result of that group^s diversities of race, custom and creed. ^
Moreover, in this light, it is easy to give the impression that social
behaviour characterized as ‘‘immorality’’ is something con-
stitutional, or even endemic to certain cultures. Whatever
may have been the intentions of the investigator’ his comments on
hybridization as well as disease ran riot through a city which had
never really concealed its antagonism towards its alien guests.^
Mere statements of fact such as tuberculosis and infant mortality
rates acquire an entirely new emotional and sociological signific-
ance when they are associated with minority groups, and Cardiff
public opinion was quite firm about its condemnation:

“The problem of the coloured population in our seaport towns . .
demands immediate Government action. Not only the social amenities of the
white man’s country, but the best interest of the coloured people themselves
are in issue.

“There is no reason for sentimentality in this matter. Let him who pleads
the justice of the coloured man’s settlement among us read the report’s refer-
ences to venereal disease and the heavy toll of tuberculosis among our guests.
Many of them are citizens of the British Empire; many did fine work in the
war. Neither of these considerations should blind us to the plain fact that they
do not belong to the social system we have evolved in these islands. Repatria-
tion may involve hardships, and it is our obligation to make it easy for them
to return to their homelands, where we will continue to carry the ‘White
man’s burden’. We can no longer tolerate that burden on our doorstep.” ®

Coming as it did at a time when the issues over “alien seamen”
were at their height, the attack was met with spirit by the coloured
community, and the excitement subsided as quickly as it had

^ cf. Captain F. A. Richardson’s Report on a survey conducted by a joint com-
mittee of the British Social Hygiene Council and the British Council for the Welfare
of the Mercantile Marine. Quoted also by the Western Mail and South Wales Echo,
8th July, 1935:

“Cardiff has before it a social problem that cannot as yet be solved. Hundreds of
Arabs and other coloured seamen have settled in the city. . . . They construct their
own places of worship in ramshackle sheds behind their lodging houses, and they
mate with the type of women who are willing to accept them because there are none
of their own kind to be had. . . . Morality and cleanliness are as much matters of
geography as they are dependent on circumstances. The coloured men who have
come to dwell in our cities are being made to adopt a standard of civilization they
cannot be expected to understand. They are not imbued with moral codes similar
to our own, and they have not assimilated our conventions of life. . . . They come
into intimate contact with white women, principally those who unfortunately are of
loose moral character, with the result that a half-caste population is brought into the
world.”

* ibid, “The half-caste girl is characteristically disinclined to discipline and routine
work, and efforts made to encourage and train her have mostly met with failure.
By nature and environment, and by the handicaps of colour and common prejudice,
these girls have very little chance but to sink to an even lower level.”

* Western MaU, 7th July, 1935.

HISTORICAL AND INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND 83

arisen. ^ Numerous white people resident in the coloured district
wrote letters characterizing the report as “misleading”, and
pointing out its lack of objectivity. The investigator himself made
clearer the fact that his main aim had been to point out the serious
defects in the social amenities of the district;^ and the injustices
of the Shipping Act, as they became better known, all con-
tributed towards a mild revulsion in popular attitudes towards
the coloured people. Subsequent visitors to the community
reported that the coloured folk were patient and peaceful in the
face of their difficulties, and a Daily Express correspondent, on a
tour of British cities, commented in his paper in even stronger
language on the lack of opportunity and the degree of colour
prejudice which still prevailed in the city. But the country was
not out of her period of economic trial, and the public in general
was no doubt satiated and tired of hearing about distressed areas,
particularly in South Wales.

14. The Spirit of Persistence

The coloured population seems subsequently to have fallen
back into welcome, if arduous, anonymity, to cope with irregular
employment, differential P.A.C. and U.A.B, rates, and juvenile
unemployability in the same way as it has met similar difficulties
throughout its brief existence — by mutual aid, by a persistent
and almost unshakeable belief in their rights as British nationals,
and by virtue of sheer necessity. Against such dogged persistence
talk about repatriation — even if the idea were a practical pro-
position, and plainly for the older men at any rate migration is

^ Although several requests were made during the period studied for an enquiry
into the problem at the ports, the Government seems to have been very apathetic,
if not averse, towards the matter (cf. Hansard, vol. 227, Gapt. Evans’ question to the
Home Secretary).

* cf. Captain Richardson’s reply in the Western Mail (loth July, 1935):

“From the Great Western Railway bridge in Bute Street to the waters of Penarth
flats there is no form of diversion other than that provided by the Missions. True,
there is a cinema which is shewn in the Wesleyan Chapel, but beyond this there does
not appear to be any legitimate form of diversion, and there certainly appears to be
prejudice in the minds of those dwelling on the city side of the Great Western Railway
bridge against members of the coloured fraternity taking their normal places in
the cinemas of the city.

“Therefore, we have this situation of hundreds of men, women and probably
worst of all their children being unable to enjoy the normal facilities of everyday life.
Their provision of two or three swings and a sandpit in Loudoun Square does not
appear to be an adequate means to this end,”

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

84

no longer so — is like so much water on a duck’s back. The older
men have now been settled here for thirty, even in some cases
for forty years. They have “grown into the place”, and however
sentimentally they may sometimes speak of their tropical home-
land, it is the nostalgia of self-pity, not of wish-fulfilment. With
the women — as the sociological description which follows should
show — the situation is somewhat different. Like the men, they
too are tied to the place, and for the significant reason that,
having married and lived there with a coloured man, “return
home” is virtually impossible, and in many cases has lost any
meaning. But few of them seem to possess the sense of locality
so evident amongst many of the menfolk, despite its being also the
place where their children were brought up. In effect, therefore,
the determination to persist is generally evident, and the sentiment
of local association seems to be amongst the strongest psycholog-
ical characteristics which the younger generation have acquired.

Such then was the background of the Cardiff coloured com-
munity up to the time of the Second World war. It represents
a history which has been shared to a greater or lesser degree by
other coloured communities in this country, and, in its economic
aspects, also to no small extent by white members and families
of the same occupational class. In most of the larger ports, the
colour bar has operated fairly generally, and the coloured
populations have been relegated to the slums, or more dilapidated
quarters of the town; there has been the same difficulty in finding
work for the juveniles, and shore work for the men. Nevertheless,
in several important characteristics there are significant differences
between the Cardiff population and that of other ports, say
Liverpool. In that city, and in London, there were also severe
race riots at the end of the 1914-18 war, and subsequent dis-
crimination against the coloured seaman was not infrequent.
But in Cardiff it would seem as if the concentration of coloured
families in one small area of the town has led to the creation
of a special focus of prejudice, broken up only by rather sporadic
attempts at amelioration.

The remarks of another reviewer of industrial South Wales,
written of the Cardiff community immediately before the present
survey, may fitly conclude this section:

“This (Shipping) subsidy is now at an end, and many of the men concerned
have wisely b^me naturaUzed, but it seems that there is still a much greater

DEMOGRAPHY, AMENITIES, HEALTH AND PHYSIQUE 85

proportion of ‘coloured’ than of ‘white’ seamen unemployed. These men have
practically no hope of alternative employment; their labour was used by the
local shipowners when it was needed. To-day they are just a ‘pool’ of labour
on which to draw when necessary; they live close to the docks and rarely
visit the centre of the city, and their existence seems to be unrecognized by
many of its inhabitants. A sight of Bute Street, the highway to Bute Docks,
brings home the extent to which Cardiff still lives, or fails to live, on the dimin-
ished coal output of the valleys at her back. Many of the shops are closed,
others appear to be on the point of doing so, most are devoted to the sale of
cigarettes and the cheapest of meals. An air of misery hangs over the whole
long streets; a dreariness far beyond that of the mining districts.”^

CHAPTER 5

DEMOGRAPHY, AMENITIES, HEALTH AND PHYSIQUE

DEMOGRAPHY

I. National and Racial Composition

It is very difficult to obtain even an approximate idea of the
exact size and composition of the community. No official register
of the names or numbers of the coloured men, their wives and
children is available, and this is unfortunate, since without it
generalizations on social or economic topics are apt to lack
proportion. The difficulty is augmented, also, by the “floating”
nature of much of the population, and as a house-to-house count
was impracticable it is impossible to say accurately how many
people the community comprised at the time of this investigation.
From other particulars, however, it is possible to make with,
probably, a reasonable degree of accuracy, a number of deductions
with a general bearing on the demography of the district.

Until about mid- 1940 an official record was kept of the alien
seamen in the port, or rather of all seamen unable to prove their
British nationality. This “Live Register” was mentioned in the
last chapter. Its latest return (1942) indicates the presence of the
following nationalities (in percentage terms) :

Arabs ............ 30

Somalis ........... 20

Africans ........... 22

West Indians. .......... 6

Malays, Indians, Portuguese and “doubtful” making up the remaining 32
‘ Philip Margery, Industrial South Wales (1940), p. 122.

86

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

This Return obviously takes no account of that majority of
the coloured folk resident in the area who were born there or
who hail from British colonial or protected territory, such as
West Africa, the West Indies, Aden, British Somaliland, etc.
These were estimated by the Police some years ago to number
some 3,000, and it was estimated at the same time that “half-
castes” of school age or over would by 1938 number some 250,
together with some 1 20 under school age, making a total of some
3,370 in all in that year. ^ There is reason to believe, however,
that the “half-caste” figures were seriously underestimated
when allowance is made for the Arabs. The Moslems to-day
claim that their children number some 1,000, i.e. of Arab,
Indian, Somali, Malay or Egyptian parentage. If this figure is
anything like correct it suggests that the present Anglo-Negroid
numbers are also greater than the 1938 estimate allows. On this
broad basis, and taking into account the white wives, other
dependents, and more transient inhabitants, a total in the
neighbourhood of 6,000 might be postulated for all the population
covered by this study.

It is possible to approach the question of national and racial
composition with slightly more confidence on the basis of the
parentage of some 200 children, mainly in attendance at the
largest school in the area. Inaccuracies in the figures below,
which analyse this sample in percentage proportions, probably
concern mainly the Arabs and the Maltese, the latter of whom
as Roman Catholics might be expected usually to send their
children to a denominational school. A number of children of
less representative nationalities, Chinese for example, attend other
schools in the district, and childless couples or unmarried men
are not allowed for in this deduction.

White children (including a few of European continental nationalities,
such as Norwegian) made up some 19 per cent.

Children with Arab, Somali or Egyptian male parents and white mothers
made up some 19 per cent.

Children of Anglo-Negroid parentage made up some 47 per cent. In the
majority of cases the Mother was white. About 13 per cent, of these were
products of the first generation of crossing.

The remaining 14 per cent, of the sample comprised children with Spanish,
Portuguese, Greek, Egyptian, or Somali parents on both sides; and further
crosses between Indian, Afghan, and Malay males and white females.

^ cf. Appendix to the Fletcher Report.

PEMOGRAPHY, AMENITIES, HEALTH AND PHYSIQUE 87

The parents consisted of:

Males Females

Per cent.

Per cent.

White .

25

White .

81

West Indians .

19

Anglo-Negroid

II

West Africans

23

Anglo-Chinese,

Egyptians,

Arabs

. . 14

Somalis, etc.

8

Somalis, Maltese,

Indians,

Greeks, etc. .

19

100

100^

Another approach in terms of the composition of the male
part only of the coloured population is afforded by the official
return of “Coloured Alien Seamen” in the year immediately
previous to the Shipping Assistance Act, when, it will be recalled,
most of the men were registered under the 1925 Aliens Order.
If we exclude for the moment the white families, the 1934 com-
position compares with that of 1941 , as estimated above, as follows:

Per cent.

Arabs .... 40

West Africans . . . 15

West Indians . . . 13

Somalis . . . 10

Indians .... 6

Malays .... 4

Others . . . 12

100

2 . Racial Characteristics

It will already be evident that its great diversity of racial
types makes the Loudoun Square district a happy hunting ground
for the physical anthropologist. He would probably do well to
begin his classification on the broad basis of division between
Caucasoid and Negroid, following up with further subdivision.
Caucasoids will then comprise not only the English, Welsh and
other British inhabitants, chiefly women, representing the main
“Nordic” and “Mediterranean” racial elements in the British

^ In the course of his anthropometric investigation of racial crossing the writer
collected the genealogies of some 240 White and 220 Anglo-Negroid children from
Cardiff, Liverpool, and Hull (including the sample above mentioned) . He estimates
that some 51 per cent, of the male parents of the “mixed” children come from West
Africa, some 36 per cent, from various West Indian islands, and that the remaining
some 13 per cent, were born in this country, being for the most part themselves of
Negroid and White parentage. {Unpublished material,)

88

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

population, but Indians, Egyptians, Arabs, Spaniards, Greeks,
and the other European inhabitants of the district. Of the latter
the Arabs alone require any special comment. They are mostly
of the Himyarite type described by Haddon, with jet-black hair,
often “European” narrow face, medium stature and the almost
white skin common to the peoples of south-west Arabia. The
Negroid category will include the West Africans, who comprise
“Soudanians” as well as members of the “true” Negro race from
the Guinea Coast, mainly the latter. Medium to tall in stature,
they are marked by their dark brown to black skin, long heads,
thick everted lips, and woolly hair. Many of the West Indians
have similar physical characteristics, and appear to possess little,
if any, Caucasoid ancestry. As many of them come from such
islands as St. Lucia, Barbados, etc., where the proportion of
Negroid in the racial amalgam is considerably greater than in
Jamaica, their racial affinities are equally clear. The Somalis
may conventionally be classified under the same Negroid
category, although the “Erythraean” racial group in which it
is usual to include them is distinguished by characteristics which
bear obvious witness to the more recent “hybrid” origin of its
members. The Cardiff contingent is typical, with its black, often
wavy hair, elongated face, rather thin lips, well-shaped nose, and
brown-black skin; they are sometimes tall and of slender build.

A similar classificatory approach to the hybrid section of the
population, i.e. the children of mixed blood, presents a less
simple problem. From the non-statistical point of view their
individual differences appear at first to be greater than the
variation in the parent races, but this is probably because visual
attention tends to concentrate on specific characters such as
shape of nose and colour of skin which differentiate racially and
with the greater clarity the stocks concerned. Yet speaking
statistically, and on the basis of a larger number of characters,
including various head and face dimensions, there was no reason
to suppose that variability amongst the “hybrids” was appreciably
greater than amongst a sample of “white” children with whom
they were compared. ^ The small size of the present samples does
not permit generalization, but it is worth mention that after
examining nine well-known studies of racial mixture in various

^ cf. K, L. Little. “Racial Mixture in Great Britain: Some Anthropological
Characteristics of the Anglo-Negroid Gross,” Eug, Rev., Jan., 1942. The samples
compared comprised po children of Anglo-Negroid parentage and 40 of “British”
(or, technically speakmg, Caucasoid) parentage.

DEMOGRAPHY, AMENITIES, HEALTH AND PHYSIQUE 89

parts of the world, Trevor came to the conclusion that hybrid
variability does not, on the whole, tend to be peculiarly high or
low, and that the distributions of quantitative characters are
approximately normal in form and, so far as can be judged,
apparently always unimodal. ^ In the present case the average
Anglo-Negroid child was medium-headed, medium-faced and
medium-nosed, with black frizzy hair, and unexposed skin
yellowish-white, becoming yellowish-brown on the face and back
of the hands; his size and stature was approximately the same as
that of the average “white” child with whom he was compared.
The Anglo-Arab cross, as seen in a small number of subjects,
appeared to be rather shorter in stature and lighter in weight
than the white child. Difference in skin colour is scarcely appreci-
able, despite a certain sallowness on the part of the Arab and a
lack of the ruddy complexion often found in the “English” child.
The faces of the former were also narrower.

Amongst those Anglo-Negroid children with more Caucasoid
than Negroid ancestral elements, an occasional reddishness
was found in the hair, and white and brown freckled faces with
the pigment showing up in patches were similarly noticeable in
some instances. In others, the sallowness of the skin and the
darker eyes were the only features which distinguished their
bearers from “English” children. So far as could be gathered,
skin colour followed a normal distribution throughout the sample,
but the preponderance of darker-pigmented eyes and hair
pointed to the operation of Mendelian factors in these respects.
The samples of “English” children provided cephalic indices of
78 — medium-headed — which is in conformity with available
data concerning the population of these islands. Hair colour and
eye colour ranged widely with some degree of uniformity from
the lighter to the darker shades.

3. Relative Stability of the Community

In order to gain further information regarding the relative
stability as well as the composition of the community. Parlia-
mentary and Municipal Voters’ lists for the years 1930 to 1939

^ cf. J. C. Trevor. “Some Anthropological Characteristics of Hybrid Popula-
tions,** Eug, Rev,, vol. 30, No. i, 1938. Trevor also concludes that the mean values of
quantitative characters are intermediate in the hybrid population where there is a
clear distinction between the parental groups. The present data were in agreement
on this point.

4 *

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

90

inclusive were consulted, ^ and the streets indicated on the
Dockland map as having an approximate coloured density of some
80 per cent, were used as a “control area”. A rough indication
can be obtained in this way of “married persons”, “non-attached
persons” (i.e. unmarried or living apart from husband or wife),
and even of “lodgers” (i.e. persons shown as of non-permanent
domicile and having surnames different from that of the occupier
of the house wherein they reside at the time) ; but the lists do not
include the names of persons under 21 years of age, or of those
not of British nationality. ^ Once again, therefore, the estimates
arrived at can be accepted merely as a broad indication of a
number of possible tendencies. In order, for example, to obtain an
estimate of the total size of the “control area” it was assumed that
for each married couple two children under the age of 21 might
be included. On this basis it was calculated in the period 1936
to 1939 inclusive some 39 per cent, of this “control population”
were married persons. Another district, non-coloured, and of a
working-class character, in the north end of the same Ward was
treated for a single year, 1938, in the same way, and showed a
married proportion of some 42 per cent. An estimate of the
married proportion in the “control area” in the same year showed
some 40 per cent., and it might therefore be tentatively suggested
that there is a close correspondence in this respect between the
coloured and the other working-class people thus sampled.

Similarly, the sex ratio in the case of the Loudoun Square
“control” worked out at 1.04 in favour of the males, and thus
provided an interesting correspondence with Adamsdown ward
as a whole, which with 9,001 males to 8,208 females (i.i) was the
only ward in the city with a ratio of this type. Both examples are
presumably evidential of the occupational character of this ward.

It is, perhaps, reasonable to suppose that the relative
residential stability of a community is shown largely by the size
of its temporary or “lodger” proportion. From the last available
Census figures (1931) it appears that some 19 per cent, of Adams-
down’s (then) some 1 7,000 inhabitants come under this category,
and this proportion is significantly greater than that of persons
in any other Ward listed as living otherwise than “in a private

^ The number of non-Britishers in the “control area** itself is likely to be small in
any case. Bute Street, which is omitted from it, is the major lodging-house quarter
where one would expect most “aliens” to reside. This point is substantiated by
Loudoun Square’s estimated “lodger’' proportion of some lo per cent, compared
with some 6o to 70 per cent, in an adjacent part of Bute Street.

DEMOGRAPHY, AMENITIES, HEALTH AND PHYSIQUE 9 1

family”. Central Ward with some I2 per gent, and Riverside
with 9.5 per cent, come nearest in this respect.^ A reasonable
explanation of the higher proportion of “lodgers” in Adamsdown
is its large number of boarding-houses, and in that respect it may
be assumed that the proportion of “lodgers” in the coloured
quarter is no less than that in the ward as a whole. On the other
hand, there are indications that the coloured community has
been becoming more settled in recent years, and this point is
brought out by the attached graph (compiled on the basis of the
Voters’ List) from which it would appear that, following a
steady decrease over the past ten years, the proportion in question
is now some lo per cent, of the whole. A further check on this is
afforded by the lists of persons “no longer qualified to vote”
(presumably because they have left the district) at the end of each
year. The figures below supply further evidence of a fairly uniform
decrease in “emigration” so far as the Loudoun Square area is
concerned, even allowing for the selection of three arbitrary lustrae:

Percentage of Population Leaving During the
Years 1932-3, 1935-6, 1938-9'

From Loudoun Square area . . . 35.3 . 32.4 . 31.5

From the whole of Adamsdown Ward . 23.8 . 22.4 . 26.1

From the Ward excluding Loudoun Square 21.8 . 20.8 . 22.9

^ The proportion for South Ward, the other dockland area of the city, was 4.17
per cent., and the city as a whole showed the same proportion.

^ These figures are based on returns for adults only. A large part of the Loudoun
Square “turnover** consisted of married couples as well as the more obvious “lodger**
category, and so the relatively high proportion of departures from there as well as
from Adamsdown as a whole cannot be accounted for entirely in terms of the largo
number of boarding houses in, the area.

92

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

The Voters’ Lists provide a final comment on the relative
instability of the coloured community compared with other parts
of the city. It appears that only one out of every three adult
residents in the Loudoun Square control area has been established
in his or her present home for less than two years; that only some
30 per cent, of the present inhabitants have lived there for twelve
or more years; and that only some 5 per cent, have been in
residence in the district for twenty-eight or more years. In terms
of the “control population”, this last finding would suggest that
some sixty of the present inhabitants have been in residence since
well before the First World war.

There is the possibility of a correlation between this migratory
tendency and certain economic factors. ^ Examination of P.A.C.
out-relief payments for the various Cardiff wards for the year
ending March 31, 1938, in terms of ratio of total payments to
population size, showed a per capita figure for Adamsdown of
^1.50. This was the largest figure for any ward, and compared
strikingly with the lowest of ;^o.3i per capita for Llandaff, whence
the percentage of departures during the same period amounted
to some 18, significantly less than Adamsdown’s some 26 per
cent.

GENERAL AMENITIES
4. Housing and Homes

We have already mentioned Cardiff’s boast that the city
contains no slums. The term itself is obviously a relative one,
but it must certainly be admitted that in comparison with the
narrow, lightless and soot- and smoke-infested streets and courts
of other industrial cities in this country, including a large part
of the dockland of Liverpool, the Cardiff working-class districts
show up on the whole very favourably. Nor, with some qualifica-
tion, is the Loudoun Square area any exception to the rule. It
lies somewhat low, and on occasion its houses become damp, and

^ Needless to add, this is a question which requires considerable investigation
before it can be adjudged in any sense as a general feature of urban sociology. It is
clear, for example, that comparisons should more properly be made between genuinely
“residential’* areas. Some districts of the modern city cater almost entirely for the
transient type of inhabitant in terms of furnished rooms and apartments, (cf. H. W.
Zorbaugh, op, cit., “The World of Furnished Rooms*’, where he describes how the
whole population in a certain district of Chicago turns over every four months.)

DEMOGRAPHY, AMENITIES, HEALTH AND PHYSIQUE 93

flooding of cellars owing to the proximity of the river is not
unknown. But it is far enough away from factory chimneys and
near enough to the Bay to receive a reasonable amount of fresh
air and winds from the sea. Drab as they are, the streets within
the district are all fairly spacious. Most of them measure about
twenty paces from kerb to kerb, and a large number of the houses,
though not detached, are separated from the backs of others by
small back yards, while some, in the Square itself, have a small
back garden. As already mentioned, the Loudoun Square houses
are now inclining to shabbiness, but they are solidly built, with
fairly large rooms, comprising a basement or cellars, ground
floor and hall, and two upper storeys. Even to-day, seen across
the small play-park in the half-light, they are not without a certain
dignity of appearance, with the setting sun turning to orange
their yellow plaster and decayed Victorian facades. Most of the
other streets contain rather smaller, two-storey houses which are
generally built of brick, mortar and plaster. It need hardly be
added that although many of these dwellings, particularly those
in the Square, are now being used as apartment houses, they
were never designed or intended for such a purpose. Water
closets, for example, are usually in a shed at the back of the
house, generally in the yard, and there is a general absence of
bathrooms and a severe limitation of space as well as of washing
and cooking facilities.

Several back alleys run parallel with Bute Street, dividing the
backs of its houses from those in the Square and Christina Street.
In the old days these alleys appear to have provided stabling for
the horses and carriages of the Loudoun Square gentry, but to-day
the sheds are used mainly for storage purposes, and the alleyways
themselves serve largely as a dumping-ground for refuse and
a certain amount of garbage. Whether or not a lack of Corpora-
tion service is the reason for this is unknown.

Gas is laid on in most of the houses, and in many cases
electricity is also available. Cooking is done on an open grate
and even in the living-room, or in a small kitchen when one is
available. A narrow hall or passageway is a common feature;
this often leads directly from the front door, whence it is possible
to see partly into the living room at the back of the house, past
the “best room” in the front, which contains the more cherished
furnishings much in the same way as a farm-house “front room”

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

94

Inside the living room there are usually a couch or sofa of rather
torn leather, a table and other oddments which tend to over-
crowd the limited space, and a few chairs. The windows are
small and limited in number, and in consequence little light
enters. The cramped and overheated atmosphere of the room is
often increased by the coal fire which it is necessary to keep going
for cooking purposes as well as for warmth even in the summer
months. On the walls and in open cupboards there usually hang
various pieces of ornamental china and crockery. Ornamentation
is often profuse, and frequently takes the form of patriotic
emblems, flags, etc., with a number of photographs, invariably
of coloured people, often in Army uniform. Matting or carpeting
tends to be meagre. The general cleanliness of the living-room
varies with individual households, irrespective of the presence of
children. In not a few cases a general appearance of tidiness and
cleanliness is created even when the apartment is a converted
cellar or basement and is correspondingly lacking in vertical
as well as horizontal space. There is a certain amount of washing
of pavements outside the front door.

5. Other Amenities

The shops in the district, exclusive of Bute Street, are all
of the general-stores type, apart from one or two butchers.
They are generally one-man or family businesses, kept for the
most part by Arabs or Maltese. They sell chiefly foodstuffs,
general groceries, etc., and stock a wide variety of odds and ends,
from bootlaces to toothpaste. There are about six public houses
inside the area with beer, wine and spirit licences. All, owing no
doubt to the prerogative of the brewers, have white licensees.

Besides those in Bute Street, boarding houses are to be found
in several streets, mostly at the north end of the district. They
cater mainly for Arabs and Somalis, whose presence provides
another sub-congregation of the population. Near by is the
Moslem mosque in Sophia Street. This is an ordinary house
whose rooms have been converted for religious purposes. The
front portion is used for prayer; behind is a cleansing room con-
taining wash bowls and shower baths. Here clothes are changed
and footwear removed, and a number of pads for the feet lead

DEMOGRAPHY, AMENITIES, HEALTH AND PHYSIQUE 95

directly into the prayer room so that devotees will not collect
dirt on the way. Another room, constructed rather like a “pen”,
serves as a school, where the young Moslem boys are given
instruction in the Koran, repeating its verses after their Somali
teacher. On feasts and other notable dates in the Mohammedan
calendar the green crescent flag of Islam is flown outside this
establishment from a flagstaff.

Apart from the two or three Church buildings there are few
other social amenities. The Methodist church has fairly large
premises, which contain a number of miniature billiard tables,
and a ping-pong outfit. These are used by members of the
Church’s young men and boys’ clubs on most autumn and winter
evenings, and by a Men’s Club for discussion meetings once a
week. There is no general community or public hall, and if any
non-Church society wishes to hold a gathering of any size it is
obliged either to apply to one of the churches for permission to
use its hall, or to hire a class room in the South Church Street
school for the purpose. If any members of the community wish
to visit a cinema, hold a dance or play a game of football or
cricket, they must go outside the area to do so. This means, in
effect, that the main opportunities for local and social gatherings
are outside in the streets or in the public houses of the area.

For the children the possibilities are slightly more extensive.
As already mentioned, there is a small play-park in Loudoun
Square, and adjacent to the Square in summer and autumn
months a “Fair”, consisting of a steam-driven merry-go-round
and an “electric car” arena, and a few swings. These are patron-
ized by a few of the older children and adolescents, but, besides
being an expensive form of entertainment, they do little but create
a great deal of noise and a certain passing excitement. The older
adolescents, as we shall see later, appear to seek most of their
entertainment outside the area; and, in the winter months in
particular, it is obvious that a game of billiards in the church
hall cannot compete with the comfort of a well-equipped cinema
and the excitements which the “silver screen”, even at second
hand, is able to offer. ^

There are three Welfare clinics near the dock area, but none
within the Bute town portion. About the time of the present

^ The recent construction of a Colonial Hostel has no doubt alleviated some of the
difficulties mentioned above. (See p. 140 n, i.)

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

96

enquiry a school feeding centre was opened at South Church
Street School where meals were provided, as in other districts,
for the children of mothers engaged on war work. ^

HEALTH AND PHYSIQ.UE

6. Infant Mortality and Tuberculosis

The Cardiff Medical Officer of Health classifies his statistics
by the municipal wards of the city, and it is impossible, therefore,
to discuss the question of the health and hygiene of the community
with exactness. As, however, the coloured people form a sub-
stantial proportion of the population of Adamsdown and South
Wards and share very largely their social and economic back-
ground, a fairly reasonable set of inferences can be made. The
most obvious features are that infant mortality and tuberculosis
take their largest toll amongst the dockland population of the city.
Examining the Cardiff wards over the period 1923-34, for
example, we find that deaths under i year averaged 97 for every
1,000 persons in Adamsdown; 94 in South, and 96 in Central,
giving an approximate average for these three wards of 96 deaths
for every 1,000 of the population. These figures should be
compared with the average of 71 for the remaining ten wards
of the city, and the fact that the Cardiff rate of 74 compares
unfavourably with the rate of 55.7 for England and Wales as a
whole over the same period may be attributed largely to the
particularly high incidence in dockland and the centre of the
city. It is all the more significant, therefore, that although the
city’s rate fell steadily and considerably in the years immediately
following — to an average of only 52 per thousand in 1938 — and
that this general fall was accompanied by a drop in the South and
Central figures, the Adamsdown rate did not fall below 77.

In the case of tuberculosis, the incidence in dockland was
proportionately even greater. Over the same period of twelve
years, the average death rate per 1,000 of the population from

^ Though none exists to-day, there was an infant welfare and play centre a few
years ago at South Church Street School, where organized games and story-telling,
drawing in colour and crayon, colouring pictures, raffia work and woodwork, wool
embroidery and other forms of handiwork were carried on,.

DEMOGRAPHY, AMENITIES, HEALTH AND PHYSIQUE 07

this disease (all forms) in the various Cardiff wards was headed
very clearly by Adamsdown with a rate of 3.49, followed by
Central with 1.77 and South with 1.64, the other wards approxi-
mating fairly closely to the two latter. This particularly high
incidence in dockland, and by inference also amongst the coloured
population, is attributed by Dr. Wilson, the City Medical Officer
of Health, mainly to occupational factors. Although tuberculosis
in all its forms affects all classes of the Cardiff population, there
is no industry in the city other than seafaring which specially
predisposes to it. It was found, for instance, in a sample of 563
cases that 18 per cent, were seamen.^ Dr. Wilson’s explanation
for this large occupational proportion is interesting:

It is argued by analogy with experience ashore a high occupational
incidence and mortality from T.B. amongst seafarers is favoured by unhygienic
conditions of crews’ spaces. It may be contended that similar conditions affect
seamen in their own houses to an even greater degree, but this is not true of
Cardiff, which, for a city of its size, has exceptionally few slums (even in the
docks area) and which, though overcrowded, is not more so than many inland
cities that have far lower T.B. rates.

And he goes on vigorously to attack the “slum” conditions
prevailing in British ships, whose general amenities and cleanliness
he compares very unfavourably with those of foreign-owned
vessels in which “the dominant note was one of comfort and clean-
liness due to the care and imagination in planning and furnishing”.
In contrast, the best that could be said of the crews’ quarters in
British ships, even those recently launched, was that they amply
conformed with the regulations laid down by the Merchant
Shipping Act. ^

^ cf. J. Greenwood Wilson, “Slum Clearance at Sea*\ The Lancet^ Sept., 1936

Although the Cardiff rate was higher than that for England and Wales, it did not
compare unfavourably in this respect with other seaport cities of the kingdom. The
Ministry of Labour Gazette (193?) quotes a report of the London School of Hygiene and
Tropical Medicine to the effect that in comparison with other callings “apart from
drowning and injury, service in the Merchant Marine is no more inimical to life and
health than are many of the occupations ashore frequently regarded as unhealthful**.
The incompatibility of this conclusion with the point made by Dr. Wilson possibly
arises out of a statistical misapplication in the former case. Many tuberculosis fatalities
do not occur, or the disease is not noticed, until some time after the men concerned
have retired from the sea or are working in other occupations.

* The relatively unhygienic condition of the British-owned ship seems to be borne
out at Cardiff by the Medical Officer’s classification of “nuisances’* discovered in
ships visiting the port in 1940. Out of 803 British ships inspected there were 96
defects of construction, 923 structural defects through wear and tear, and 983 dirty,
verminous and other conditions prejudicial to health, making a total number of
defects and nuisances of 2,002. Out of 442 ships of other nations, there were 16 1
defects of construction, 338 structural defects through wear and tear,, and 223, dirty,

98

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

The high tuberculosis and infantile mortality rates in
Adamsdown Ward are no doubt answerable for the fact that in
1938 this part of the city with 15.8 deaths per thousand showed
the highest death rate of any ward, ^ comparing very unfavourably
with the lowest rate of 8.8 in the suburban area of Ely, and hardly
less so with that of Splott, another working-class district — 10.7
per thousand. In regard to birth rate, however, Adamsdown
was third highest with i8.g births per thousand members of the
community, being exceeded only by South (20.0), and Ely
( 23 ' 5 )-

7. Overcrowding and Hygiene

Even though the maritime origin of tuberculosis is no doubt
most likely to account for the majority of cases in this instance,
it seems just as evident that overcrowding ashore has as much to
do with its perpetuation as any other collection of factors. In
this respect also, it is possible that overcrowding by multiple
tenancy rather than the quality of the Cardiff houses themselves
is mostly to blame. The city as a whole has for some time suffered
from an acute shortage of housing accommodation, and although
a number of new housing estates have been built on its outskirts
at Ely and Mynachdy, the fact that most of the ground rents in
the urban area are privately owned has prevented any adequate
expansion of the cheaper type of dwelling-house that is required.
Consequently, although during the years 1935-1938 the extent
of overcrowding was reduced from 1,272 families to 424, there
still remained in the latter year over 3,000 persons living in over-

verminous and other conditions prejudicial to health, making a total of 722. In short,
defects and nuisances in British ships were approximately one and a half times more
plentiful than in foreign ships (cf. Annual Report of the Public Health Department^ 1940).
Dr. W. Frazer, writing of conditions at Liverpool, points out that “inspection of the
crews’ quarters was noteworthy only by the fact that the quarters so closely resembled
those provided for the crews in British ships 20 or 30 years ago.” (cf. Ann, Rep, to
Liverpool Port, San. Auth, (1935).)

On the other hand R. H. Thornton {pp, cit,) hsts the following observation — “I
believe that most port medical inspectors would agree that, if two new ships of identical
amenity and space were occupied, one by an average British, and the other by a
Norwegian or Swedish crew, the latter would contrive to create and retain an atmos-
phere of modest and homely comfort, while the former might well degenerate into an
unattractive squalor. . . . ‘Slum’ after all is a relative term, designed to express
disgust at living conditions which another age would have called luxury” (p. 225).

^ The death rate for the whole city was 12.6.

DEMOGRAPHY, AMENITIES, HEALTH AND PHYSIQUE 99

crowded dwellings. As already indicated, the majority of extra
housing was required in the working-class districts, viz:

Central

25

houses

(23)

South .

• 39

»

(27)

Adamsdown

• 39

99

(26)

Splott

• 49

99

(23)

Grange

47

99

(32)

Relating the number of houses required in each of these wards
to their respective populations, as is done by the indices in
brackets, it will be seen that the needs were proportionately
greatest in the case of Grangetown, lying on the west side of the
dock area, and in the two main dockland wards. It is difficult
to say how this situation specifically affects the coloured
population, but there is no doubt that in their case the factor of
multiple tenancy, whereby the single set of amenities in a house,
such as lavatories, landings, stoves, etc., are used in common by
the several families inhabiting the same house, is of major im-
portance in bringing about conditions of overcrowding.

Some indication of the extent of sub-letting was gained on the
basis of the Register of Electors for 1938, using the same streets as
before (see p. 90) as a “control”. Of some 380 houses it appeared
that about 42 per cent, were sub-let and occupied by more than
one tenant, 27 of these houses being occupied by three or more
tenants or sub-tenants. Taking a similar number of streets and
houses in the north end of the same Ward and north of the
“colour line”, i.e. on the city side of the Great Western Railway
bridge, it was estimated in the same way that the proportion of
houses occupied and sub-let to more than one family was 33 per
cent., and that 12 houses were occupied or sub-let to 3 or more
sub-tenants. Needless to say, however, this cannot be taken
as a direct comparison between the coloured district and a non-
coloured area, in view of the difference in size and type of house.
A further rough estimate was made by taking a number of streets
in the Loudoun Square area which contain the larger type of
house, and using the Electoral List for the same year (1938) when,
incidentally, the population of the area seems to have been
relatively small. The results were as follows: In Christina Street
with 51 occupied houses there were —

6 or more adults in each of five houses,

5 adults in each of ten houses.

100

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

2 married couples in each of sixteen houses,

3 married couples in each of three houses.

Whikt in Loudoun Square itself there were —

6 adults in each of three houses,

5 adults in each of nine houses,

2 married couples in each of fourteen houses,

3 married couples in one house.

Using the same means of estimation and taking the district
as a whole, the actual house-occupation rate worked out at
2.88 adults per house (married persons 2, “non-attached”
persons 0.88). Of 49 known families, the average size of family
worked out at 5.6 persons, and so if we include with the above
figure 2.5 children under 21 for each married couple, this would
give an approximate total occupation rate of some 5.5 persons.^
As already indicated, owing to the absence of Alien Returns and
other omissions, this figure must definitely be regarded in one
sense as an underestimate. On the other hand, on the question
of excessive limitation of living space, ^ which in the light of the
above data, appears to apply specifically rather than generally,
it should be remembered that a fair proportion of the males may
be expected to be absent at sea at any one time. Such empirical
enquiry as the writer was able to make did a little to clarify the
subject. Data collected from 13 households regarding their
accommodation showed a total of 78 rooms — including 44
bedrooms — occupied apparently by some 87 individuals, of
whom 45 were returned as children under 14 (see Table attached).
Even allowing for the inadvertent inclusion of a number of non-
living rooms, such as kitchens and sculleries, and the omission of
lodgers from the returns, this still argues for a relatively generous
allotment of space.®

^ The average size of family on the basis of 49 known families was as follows
(number of families known in each case in brackets) :

Negroid father or head of household . . . . (16) 6.1

White father or head of household . . . . . (ig) 5.26

Non-European (including Negroid) father or head of household (30) 5.83

* Miss Nancie Sharpe (unpublished MSS) estimated in 1932 that 29 out of 47
Cardiff coloured families were living in overcrowded conditions.

® This point seems to receive a more general endorsement from the 1931 Census
of the Adamsdown ward as a whole, which shows 0.98 persons to a room (the computa-
tion of rooms is on the basis of the usual living rooms, including bedrooms and kitchens,
but excluding sculleries, lobbies, closets, bathrooms, etc.). This is the same average
figure as shown by the Administrative County of London, with some 4.5 million
inhabitants, for the same Census year, and is actually much smaller than that in
most London working-class districts. The Adamsdown figures were exceeded only by
South, the other main dockland ward, and Splott, another working-class area, with
i.oi persons to a room.

Nature of Household of Thirteen Coloured Families

DEMOGRAPHY, AMENITIES, HEALTH AND PHYSIQUE

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Total number of Rooms (inclusive of “other rooms’^) 78

102

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

It is probable, therefore, that the actual housing of the popula-
tion is only one of the factors underlying the high mortality rate
of dockland. Improvements not only in housing, but in personal
and domestic cleanliness, increased sanitation, public cleansing, ^
disposal of refuse, storage and preparation of food, and relative
freedom from dust are all factors which might be expected to
bring about a reduction in the rate. Their application waits
not only on a revival in the shipping industry, but on a consider-
able improvement in public services and on a fairly highly trained
and literate population.

It is equally difficult to come to any definite conclusions as to
the significance of the relative incidence of other and less serious
diseases. In 1938 Adamsdown and South wards showed the
smallest percentage of notified cases of scarlet fever, and were
respectively third and fourth on the list in regard to diphtheria.
It is difficult to say how far the former instance provides a true
picture of the medical situation in view of possible non-
notification. It is interesting that diphtheria — which as a more
serious disease might be expected to come much more readily
under medical notice — had a much higher incidence in the areas
with which we are concerned.

8. Physique of the Children and Adults

In short, therefore, it is probably true to say that, save in the
matter of tuberculosis, ^ the coloured population has in ordinary
circumstances a standard of health not unlike that of the other
sections of the city’s population. Like other working class and
poorer sections of the community it tends to show less resistance
to infection and epidemic than the richer, better educated, better

^ The writer can endorse this point from personal experience in one of the houses
of nocturnal adventures with a continuous stream of several varieties of lice, which, as
was apologetically explained, “just drop from the walls’’. The writer is unable
to say whether this condition, which, needless to say, is not unique in the district,
could be at least alleviated by periodic fumigation, or whether, as was suggested to
him, the only way to cure it would be to pull down the houses.

® The question of venereal disease, which according to observers in Liverpool
(cf. M. E. Fletcher, op. cit.) and Capt. Richardson (see p. 82), is extremely rife
among these coloured seafaring populations, is another matter. Its incidence is
likely to be greatest in the present case amongst persons coming from the Bute Street
milieu, but unfortunately the writer has no figures at his command which would
throw adequate light on this matter. Again, as with tuberculosis, the question of
non-local origin has to be borne in mind in the sociological assessment of such statistics.

DEMOGRAPHY, AMENITIES, HEALTH AND PHYSIQUE I03

nourished, and better housed classes, and to suffer a greater
loss amongst its infantile members. In all these matters the part
played by malnutrition is as important as it is debatable. Since
the relation of constitution to environment is not fully understood,
the precise effect of inadequate feeding is often difficult to assess,
even under clinical conditions, and in the present case nothing
more was possible than a rather cursory examination in the
course of studying the children anthropometrically. Though the
samples compared were not large enough to yield significant
results, a number of observations suggested that both white
and “mixed” children showed up favourably in physique in
respect of weight and height, as compared with other Cardiff
working-class children whose measurements were taken in the
course of a nutritional survey a few years ago, ^

Carious dental conditions, which are often regarded as a
rough guide to malnutrition, were fairly plentiful amongst the
white and Arab children, but it would be dangerous to infer
too much from this. Quite apart from a relative absence of the
prophylactic measures usual in better-educated sections of
society, the matter is complicated by what appears to be a racial
advantage on the part of the Negro in respect of this biological
feature. ^ At the time of the survey, at any rate, the children were
certainly not lacking either in robustness or vitality, and it is
probably safe to say that except in times of dire poverty their
physical needs are not neglected; except, perhaps, in the matter
of unsuitable and undiversified diet — one which, needless to say,
is not peculiar to this community.

It was not found possible to make any similar anthropometric
survey of the adults. From general observation, however, the
men presented on the whole a rather more “healthy” appearance
than the womenfolk, particularly the older ones. Many of the
middle-aged as well as the older women have the pale and wrinkled
faces commonly seen in the poorer districts of a modern city as
well as, in some cases, the stunted appearance which is generally
attributed to unfavourable conditions of environment. In some
of these instances it is possible that these signs of “dilapidation”

1 cf. K. L. Little, op, cit,

* This suggestion that increased resbtance to dental disease is inheritable through
Negroid ancestry seems to be borne out by voluminous material from other parts of
the world, and the present writer’s unpublished data concerning a much larger
sample than that discussed above are still further in agreement with it.

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

104

are partly the result of earlier experiences in professional pro-
stitution, but the point should not be stressed too far, as untidiness
of dress, slovenly gait, etc., all contribute to the same effect.

In view of their racial variety it is far more difficult to appraise
the men, especially the Negroes, whose age a European is often
inclined to assess as five or even ten years less than it actually is.
The Somalis, too, on account of their tall and very slender build,
are difficult to judge in respect of physique. But allowing for all
this, there is no doubt that most of the men convey an impression
of considerable robustness; and in view of their occupational
experiences as firemen, stokers, etc., jobs demanding the maximum
of physical strength and muscular effort, this is no more than
might be expected.

CHAPTER 6

SOCIOLOGY— LIFE AND LABOUR
I. Colour Prejudice in Cardiff

Among the more important factors which condition and
resolve the sociology of the coloured community there is little
doubt that the attitude of the outside world in terms of colour
prejudice is the most significant. The historical implications
of this point will already be clear, particularly in bringing about
the segregation of the coloured folk in the dock area. The matter
can be put quite concretely. Were a coloured family to obtain
housing accommodation, either as tenants or as lodgers, in a
residential quarter of the town, their presence would cause a
lowering of assessments in the district concerned, and hence a
depreciation in the value of surrounding property. ^ This point
was put quite plainly to the writer in conversation with various
Corporation officials, and it appears to be no less evident in

^ cf. Western Mail, 1919: “Mr. G. W. Melhuish complained at the meeting of the
Cardiff Health Committee on Wednesday that respectable houses in the Riverside
district were occupied by coloured people. This constituted a menace to the peace
at times of rioting, and the white people were afraid of what might occur. He con-
sidered it too bad and he blamed the landlords and house agents for letting
the property to coloured people. They ought to be ashamed of themselves.**

sociology: life and labour 105

other cities, such as Liverpool, and in parts of London. It denotes
the existence of certain social attitudes which, from the point of
view of a house-agent or property owner, are as real a factor and
as much a danger to be guarded against as the possible incursion
of shops or industry into a “desirable” neighbourhood.^

Other forms of “resistance” in Cardiff are various, and
include ostracism, oral or newspaper comment, refusal to serve,
non-admission to dance halls, hotels, etc. ^ Here, as elsewhere in
Great Britain, the main reason for avoiding personal contact
with or physical approximation to a coloured man or woman
is probably fear or losing social status, but there are other reasons
also. In the course of the present investigation, an attempt was
made to obtain a more quantitative estimate of the position by
means of a short census of hotels and boarding houses. Eleven
such establishments were visited, and after enquiring terms, etc.,
in the role of a possible client, the writer asked the receptionist
or proprietor if he would accommodate a number of his coloured
student friends. Three affirmative replies, all from larger hotels,
were received, and of these one stipulated that the coloured
guests should be of “good class”. The other seven answered in the
negative with a varying degree of emphasis, and one was doubt-
ful. On being pressed for her reason for objection, the keeper
of a commercial hotel said: “We are only a small place catering
for commercials — in a larger place it may be all right”. The
reception clerk at a larger hotel said that her instructions in this
respect came from the management, and she attributed it to
what she termed the “snobbish attitude” of the English. The
proprietors of a number of small boarding-houses were more
communicative and sympathetic. They stressed the fact that
they had no personal objection to coloured people, but that their
boarders would protest, and they had to think of their
business.

These replies would appear to imply a strong prejudice on the
part of the average white person against coming into close

^ cf. Harold A. Moody, Christianity and Race Relation, p. 7 (pub. Fellowship of
Reconciliation, 1943). It has recently been reported in the Press that a company
owning a large number of London flats has a special clause in its leases excluding
coloured people.

Some years ago a request was passed round a fairly fashionable London square
to keep out coloured people in order to prevent its reputation from falling.

* To a certain extent this situation has been aggravated by the occasional incur-
sions of a few rowdy individuals from the coloured quarter.

io6

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

physical or social proximity with a coloured person, even,
apparently, one of the “better” social class suggested by the word
“student”. There is little reason to suppose that the situation in
Cardiff, or Liverpool, or other ports where coloured people
reside differs from that in English society as a whole. The writer’s
more extensive inquiry^ makes it likely that similar aversions
affect up to at least 6o per cent, of the English middle class,
and appear to involve much the same type of prejudice. What
colour prejudice exists in Cardiff, then, is a reflection of current
attitudes in our social heritage. The main difference between
Cardiff and, say, a non-seaport city is due not so much to the
absence of colour-bar patterns in the latter as to that of any
sizable and “poor class” coloured population. Moreover, in the
case of Cardiff, two further considerations must be borne in mind.
A coloured seaman there is a person of low social status merely
by virtue of his occupation, and this in itself implies some degree
of ordinary class differentiation apart from any question of colour.
The other point is that for the average white person in Cardiff,
“Tiger Bay”, Bute Street, with its openly acknowledged reputa-
tion of unsavouriness, and Loudoun Square itself are all one and
the same place, with identical characteristics.^ The last chapter
showed that the coloured quarter has received much unfavour-
able publicity in the past, and taking the history of the dock area
as a whole, there is nothing surprising in the fact that its associa-
tions should linger in the popular mind as something exciting
and at the same time rather disreputable. ^ Even members of the
Cardiff white population who go down to work in the area every
day have very little understanding of the life and character of its

^ Sec Appendix, “An Aspect of the Colour Bar in English Society”.

^ At one time, scuffles and knife and brick fights around the dock area were not
uncommon. More specifically, however, as already indicated, the opprobrium
should be attached to Bute Street. The “doping” activities described in the last
chapter are by no means a thing of the past. Nor is it difficult to see how the confusion
of Bute Street with Loudoun Square should have arisen. Addressing the jury
during the trial of a recent murder committed in the district, Mr. Justice Charles
said at Swansea Assizes:

“The state of affairs in the Bute-street quarter of Cardiff is lamentable. This
quarter, assize after assize, supplies the criminal court with these dreadful crimes.
Someone committed this appalling crime; there is no doubt about that. I think
it is a disgrace to that great city, and I only wish that some steps could be taken
to ameliorate such a state of affairs.” (Quoted from daily press.)

^ “Most Cardiff citizens think of the Docks as Bute Street, and of Bute Street as an
exciting cosmopolitan place, not quite nice to be in at night. The Docks area is
certainly not nice to be in at any time. ...” Make Cardiff a Capital City, Communist
Party publication, 1938.

sociology; life and labour 107

inhabitants,^ and it is inevitable that for others, who lack even
this slight degree of contact, the coloured men they meet in the
streets uptown should be seen as stereotypes of even greater
undesirability than they would be in a non-seaport town.

But however vividly Bute Street, with its long line of cafts
and haunts of ill repute, may be associated with Loudoun Square
in the general imagination of Cardiff, there is no doubt how
strenuously the inhabitants of the Square disavow any such social
or communal connection. The coloured residents complain
often and bitterly of the bad name the district receives in con-
sequence of the “undesirable” Bute Street influx, pointing to the
periodic disturbances which result from dice-playing as an
example of this. The obvious inference from their comments is
that Loudoun Square people when left to themselves are law-
abiding citizens, ordinary peace-loving and respectable members
of society. '^ The suggestion is by no means an unreasonable one.
Granting that an influx from Bute Street into the streets around,
welcome or unwelcome, is inevitable, it does not follow that the
movement is reciprocal. Indeed, so far as the writer’s own
observations went, it seems true to say that, with the exception of
two or three of the more “respectable” public houses, the greater
part of the coloured community definitely eschew Bute Street as a
place of entertainment. Despite popular notions on the subject,
there is a strong vein of propriety in Loudoun Square. The fact
that the area is a working-class one by no means indicates that it
lacks the social factors operative in the rest of our society, and
for this reason alone the mere proximity and reputation of Bute
Street are enough to prohibit it to all who wish to improve or even
to keep their social status.

^ A resident of one of the Cardiff suburbs, who worked during the day-time in the
dock-area, and with whom the writer came in contact in the course of his anthropo-
metric study, expressed great surprise on hearing that he was usually about in the
coloured district at night time. “Is it quite safe?’* he inquired, and went on to describe
several gruesome experiences he had heard of.

2 Some of the more conservative members of the community deplore especially
the way the neighbourhood has “gone down” in more recent years, and quote as an
example the more obvious manifestations of commercialized vice in the shape of the
“caf6s”. Their objection appears to be largely to the unwonted publicity of these
establishments. In the old days the trade was carried on quietly and decently behind
the scenes, the ladies concerned receiving clients in their private houses in the neigh-
bouring streets.

io8

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

2. Social Groupings

In view of the very great variety of racial as well as national
elements in this population (more than 50 nationalities are
said to be represented in the dockland area), it is obvious that
any analysis of it in terms of social groupings must be made with
the greatest caution and not a little generalization. An added
difficulty is in saying how far the community can be assessed on
the basis of the English social system. Many of its members
aspire to be, and reasonably might be, classified in terms of
that system. Others, most of the Moslems for example, maintain
an almost separate society of their own and their inclusion in the
English class system would not be justified. Perhaps it is most
satisfactory, at least for the present, to regard the community as a
discrete entity, and to classify its members according to their
general social or political “interests”. Following this fairly
straightforward though somewhat arbitrary procedure, we may
distinguish the following main segments, the first three of which
may properly be looked upon as socio-ethnic,

(a) The Afro — West-Indian. This group contains the West
Indian and West African elements — several hundred men, most
of them married, and a large proportion resident in the district
at least since the end of the First World war.^ The group is
therefore probably above middle age on the whole. Racially
speaking it includes by far the darkest skins in the community.
Most of the Africans hail officially ^ from Sierra Leone, Freetown
in particular; others are from Nigeria, the Gold Coast, the
Gambia, etc., with a few from the French colonial possessions,
and rather more from the Portuguese Cape Verde islands.
Among the “tribes” represented are Temne, Mende, Kru,
Wolof, Fante, Akim, Yoruba, Efik, etc. A large number of the
West Indians come from Barbados and Trinidad, but Jamaica,
as well as the smaller islands such as Montserrat and St. Lucia,
is well represented, and in addition there are men from the main-
land, British Guiana, and a small number of American Negroes.

^ It is amongst this group that the memory of the early experiences of the coloured
settlement is most vivid.

* The adverb is necessary since, according to some reports in the community, a
number of these men are actually from the hinterland of Liberia, but, wishing to be
regarded as British subjects, they give the Colony as their birthplace.

sociology: life and labour 109

The group as a whole is extremely “colour-conscious”, and very
zealous for the good name of their homeland and of people of
African origin; a sentiment which many of them try to combine
with various social pretensions. Its members frequently speak
in brotherly terms of the “coloured peoples”, but there is a
tendency to restrict the term to those of Negroid affinities rather
than to apply it to coloured races in general. There is a strong
degree of masculinity and even austerity in the attitudes of many
of the men. Their interests are to a certain extent political, but
are apparently of a nationalist as well as socialist nature, and find
expression in the form of an official organization known as the
Sons of Africa, which came into being some five years ago. The
purposes of this association are primarily social and cultural.
Despite its name, membership is open to all, and includes a
fairly large number of the womenfolk, some of the older “half-
castes”, and a few other males of non- African origin.^ The
Association cannot afford to rent rooms of its own, ^ and depends
for extraordinary meetings on the generosity of individual
members. It holds general meetings in hired buildings and other
places of assembly in the district, when matters of special interest
to the community come up for discussion, and aims at providing
thereby a public forum. At other times its affairs are carried on
by an executive committee which meets on Saturday afternoons
in the house of the Treasurer, and looks after general business,
including the collection of the subscription. This is one
penny per member per week, and is used among other things
to provide aid in sickness or distress, and as a burial fund.
Every member who falls sick and goes to hospital^ receives
a payment of 2 /- per week. At funerals a number of
carriages are provided by the Association, and this, as it was
pointed out, constitutes a particularly good advertisement.
Further mutual aid is possible owing to the fact that several
members of the body are donkeymen. A donkeyman plays a large
part in selecting the crew, and it appears that fairly full advantage
is taken of this industrial privilege by the members. Finally,

1 The present membership is said to be some 400, of whom about 300 are Africans.

^ The fact that the Association has no premises of its own gives rise to its consider-
able chagrin. One member pointed out that its name is known as far away as America.
When an American Negro comes to Cardiff he naturally asks for the buildings of the
Sons of Africa and is surprised and disappointed to discover that there arc none.

* It was pointed out that reception in hospital obviated any question of malinger-
ing on the part of the beneficiary.

no

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

the Association tries to keep a general eye on the political interests
of the coloured community. Some time ago, when the B.B.C.
was planning a broadcast on the activities of the coloured folk,
the Association intervened successfully in regard to one or two
points in the programme which it considered prejudicial to the
community’s good name.

In short, the Sons of Africa claims to bring about a greater
degree of collaboration — its slogan is “unity”. Its leaders are
among the most respected members of the community, and it is
looked upon as a highly respectable organization by coloured
and white alike. Socially, perhaps, its most important function is
as a status-assuring body. Its approved criteria — sober and
informed discussion, a proper funeral, a “moral” code of be-
haviour — are also goals of the lower middle classes as such,
and are points usually approved by bourgeois society. Perhaps
it is largely for this reason that from the point of view of the more
politically-minded Colonial Defence League,^ the purely social
and cultural activities of the Sons of Africa are looked upon with
some impatience as “unrealistic”.^ “They bury a man when he
is dead, and do nothing for him while he is alive.”

This Afro — West-Indian segment is very well established,
and in general terms, mainly through the influence of the Sons of
Africa, represents the more solid and accommodative part of the
coloured community. It suffers, however, or appears to suffer,
from a lack of educated leadership and of political experience.

(b) The Moslems. This segment also is largely male in content,
and in age is probably slightly junior to the Afro^West-Indian
one. The bulk of its members are Arabs, mainly from Aden,
though there are also a fairly substantial number of Somalis from
British Somaliland, Indians, Egyptians and Malays. Its total
numbers are difficult to estimate; but if the women and children
are included — for most of the former and not a few of the latter
have also been “islamized”^ — it probably amounts to something
not far short of two thousand.^ This segment is essentially

^ Sec p. 1 13 below for the history of this body.

® Some significant changes in the relations of the two societies occurred during the
investigator’s contact with the community, i.e., during the course of a year.

^ The extent of conversion varies, particularly as regards the observance of various
prohibitions. Some of the young people, however, have learned to speak Arabic
fairly well. Others seem to be attracted mainly by the novelty of wearing Arab dress.

* One estimate is — 700 Arab males; 150 Somali males; 1,000 Moslem children.
After the investigation began m?iny of the men were lost at sea through U-boat action

sociology: life and labour

III

religious and social rather than political in its interests, and is
bound together by the strong ties of brotherhood inherent in the
Islamic creed, despite some sectarianism in this respect.^ These
religious ties and obligations are responsible to a considerable
degree for the fact that the Arabs, at any rate, make social
contacts almost exclusively amongst themselves, and particularly
for the practice of a large amount of mutual assistance in respect
of material possessions. For example, if a needy Moslem arrives
in the district, one or two of the wealthier members of the group
will see that he is properly set up with clothes, etc. This “setting
up” is not exactly an act of charity, as the recipient is expected to
repay the obligation; and he usually does so when he returns to
port from his next trip. ^ The Moslems used to possess their own
mosque, but this was destroyed by a bomb during the raids on
Cardiff. A Moslem school and a temporary mosque have been
established in a suitable building in Sophia Street, and are
carried on under the auspices of a resident sheikh and a small
staff of assistants, and in the “school” instruction in the Koran
is given to the Arab and other Moslem children of mixed blood.
Members of the group carry out their religious devotions with
great assiduity, and the building has appropriate facilities for
cleansing and prayer. The front room is pleasantly decorated in
the Arab Moslem colours of green and yellow. Prayers are
inscribed on the walls, from which mats are also hung, and there
is a good carpet on the floor. The children sit outside in a small
“pen”, under the care of the sheikh’s secretary, a tall Somali.
Apart from his duties as religious head,^ the sheikh, who always
wears Arab dress and is accompanied on his perambulations
round the district by a small attendant, acts also as an unofficial
banker for his “parishioners”. Many hundreds of pounds cure
entrusted to his care without written bond by returning seamen,
the only stipulation being that the money shall be handed back
in cash when the depositor requires it. For this reason, the

^ There is an Arab club, and a Somali club. When a general meeting of the Com-
munity as a whole is called, each club sends its own representatives. The Somalis
are said to be particularly “independent**, and do not seem to have affiliated com-
pletely with any other section.

* It will be recalled (p. 79) that most of the P.A.G. payments advanced to Arabs
by the Cardiff authorities were subsequently repaid.

® According to one report, the origin of the present religious leader was as
^‘apprentice’* to a Moslem priest in Algiers who transferred his “power** on his death
to the disciple.

1 12 NEGROES IN BRITAIN

sheikh has to keep a large amount of ready money always at hand
— a practice which led to a financial disaster on the night the
mosque was bombed.^ The institutional side is maintained in
appropriate Moslem fashion by almsgiving on the part of the
members. Very many of this segment have married white wives,
although there is also a small number of Somali married
women.

There is a tendency to regard the Arab section as being of
rather higher social status than the other “coloured” members of
the community. There is little doubt that most of the Moslems
themselves share this point of view, particularly in regard to the
Negroes. On the other hand, it is possible that linguistic difficulties
account to some extent for the aloofness. Apart from their
prominent share in the commercial life of the community, the
Arabs take a keen interest in certain social affairs, such as A.R.P.
duties, and although comment in this respect is based on a small
number of cases, their sense of social responsibility is possibly
more marked than that of other sections. This may be accounted
for by the fact that as boarding-house keepers their propensities
for public work and organization have more scope.

(c) The ‘‘Mixed Bloods”.^ This segment comprises mainly
the coloured juveniles of both sexes of Anglo-Negroid origin,
although other crosses are to be found mixing with it. In some
senses, therefore, it is simply a younger age group. Its members
mix freely with one another, and present on the surface almost
a light-hearted attitude towards life, and a suggestion of ir-
responsibility, the degree of which is apt to be estimated differently
by different observers. This point requires further diagnosis,
and is dealt with under a separate heading. Social affiliations
are cross-cut by a number of church and other clubs, but the
group is also institutionalized to some extent through what is
known as the “Coloured Youth Movement of Cardiff”. The
group as a whole is highly conscious of its “peculiar” social and

^ A large number of Arabs were praying in the cellar of the mosque when the
bomb hit it, but all had a “miraculous** escape. The safe containing the men*s
savings, however, was destroyed. It is reported that the loss was accepted with the
greatest calm by men who subsequently returned to the district, and no rancour or
suspicion attended this liquidation of their assets.

* The term “Half-Caste** is the name in general use by the outsider. It is as well
to note, however, that it is rarely if ever used within the community, and is very
unpopular among the young people concerned, who usually prefer to be referred to
as ^‘coloured**.

sociology: life and labour 113

racial position, and this point directly or indirectly provides its
most obvious reactions, and even interests.

(d) The ‘'Politicians^' . This fairly large, though somewhat
indeterminate, section includes representatives of most of the
segments, which to some degree it cross-cuts, comprising some
both of the “Mixed Bloods” and of the inhabitants of longest
standing. It must therefore be defined in loose terms, but it finds
institutional expression in the other most significant organization
in the district, the Colonial Defence League. This body originated
under the stress of the application of the Aliens Order and
the Shipping Assistance Act, as described in chapter 4; its
object is the protection of the interests and rights of the Colonial
population, in a militant degree if necessary. Perhaps for this
reason, its influence seems to have been more marked in times of
adversity than in the present comparative security, when its
activities command less serious attention and sympathy. It is
difficult to say how far it may be regarded as an unofficial section
of the Cardiff Communist Party, an organisation which also
claims to have the interests of the coloured community closely
at heart, and is supported by several members of the C.D.L.
Its affiliation and activities in this respect seem to have earned the
strong disapproval of the more conservative-minded members of
the Sons of Africa, despite the fact that both parties claim to be
striving for much the same principles and along the same non-
racial lines. The “politicians” number amongst them some of
the best “talkers”, as well as the best educated and most racially
bitter members of the community, and in consequence it is
more than likely that the lack of mutual agreement, which
is never far below the surface, arises more from a conflict of
personalities than one of principles. This question is discussed
more fully on a later page.

(e) The Womenfolk. This segment includes mainly the married
women, white or coloured, whose interests are mainly domestic
and social along the lines prescribed for their sex. It is difficult
to say how many of the white women are of local, or even of
Welsh origin. The Cardiff School Medical Officer, who attempted
in 1922 to estimate the composition of the city’s population,
decided that not more than 22 per cent of Cardiff’s mothers came
from South Wales, ^ and this conclusion tallies with the consider-

^ Report of the School Medical Officer of Healthy Cardiff, 1922.

5

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

1 14

able influx of immigrants which in the latter part of the last
century helped to swell the city to its present size. It is possible
that even this low figure is too high for the composition of the
community with which we are dealing.

This female segment, however, is extremely important,
partly because the community of to-day has grown up around
and because of it, and partly because it forms a connecting
thread between all the other segments already described. Its
establishment, too, must be regarded broadly in terms of the
colour complex as a whole. It is reasonable, for example, to
assume that many of the older married women residing in the
Square and elsewhere in the district came from the Bute Street
milieu as a direct result of the process of “cafo” recruitment.
Quite a number of women who follow such a professional career
remain in it until it has ceased to be lucrative, or until they
contract disease, when, becoming notorious, they are sometimes
obliged to quit it and look for other means of support. The
coloured man, who has little, if any, opportunity of meeting a
white woman of “better” class, is their obvious quarry, and he is
often quite glad to oblige them. Moreover, particularly in the
earlier days of the community, many coloured seamen strange to
English customs and social standards arrived in the district.
They had no means of sifting their social contacts or of assessing
the characters and reputations of the women they fell in with;
and they were often anxious to settle down and set up some kind
of establishment which they could come back to and look upon
as a home. Unpropitious as Bute Street would seem to be as a
matrimonial agency, many of the contracts made in this way
(not all of them legally effected) seem to have resulted in
permanent and well-established households. In other cases,
of course, the woman continues her attempt to make the best
of both worlds, and carries on her old profession more or less
sporadically by accommodating “visitors” in the house during
her husband’s absence, sometimes even, with his consent or
connivance, when he is at home.

But it would be a mistake to assume that the origin of all
the Loudoun Square womenfolk is of such “poor class”. There
are examples of girls coming straight from middle-class and
respectable working-class families whose marriage to a coloured
man has proved socially inauspicious from the point of view of

sociology: life and labour

”5

parents and friends, and who in consequence, partly for con-
venience, partly through social pressure, were obliged to move
to the coloured quarter of the town. With the arrival of children
their position in the district became consolidated more or less
for good. Other white housewives have arrived here in a variety
of ways. A few have left home either from a spirit of adventure,
or because they found the ideas and customs of their original
social group too restrictive, and have “taken up” with a coloured
man and become established here, not always involuntarily.^
Other women have borne an illegitimate child to a white father
in another part of the country, or in the neighbourhood of
Cardiff, and have come here to “hide their shame”. Not in-
frequently such a woman makes a marriage of convenience with
a coloured man, who gladly adopts the child. ^ The ramifications
of their position are therefore manifold, but in general terms
these women represent a group which has failed for one reason
or another to adapt itself to “normal” society.

In short, the white womenfolk are in a way almost as
heterogeneous an assemblage as their coloured consorts. Cultur-
ally they have more in common, but socially speaking their
origin is hardly less diverse, and they have little beyond the
common experience of the neighbourhood to bind them together.
Like the men, they seem to form a number of cliques for various
social purposes. One group, consisting mostly of the church-
going Africans’ wives, provides the membership of the Women’s
Institute at the local church, and meets for weekly talk and
discussion under the leadership of the Methodist missioner’s
wife. Another group will usually be found sitting in the saloons
of the local public houses. Others lead more isolated lives, and
apart from an occasional doorstep gossip seem to mix very
little with their fellows. One or two, from “better class” circles,
are obviously very self-conscious about their social position, and
appear deliberately to keep aloof.

^ Some commentators are very insistent on the sexual implications. Individual
police officials in particular, assert that many of these girls do not find equal
satisfaction in the embraces of the white man. It is possible that cultural differences
in the love-making of the Negro may be responsible for the girls in question being
unwilling to consider any other partner. On the other hand, there is no reason why
a psychological explanation in terms of compatibility of interests should not be equally
plausible. The popular difficulty over this question arises mainly out of rationalization
of what seems to the average white man an almost outrageous phenomenon.

One instance was quoted of an Indian serving a long sentence for manslaughter
who never failed to write and inquire after his adopted child.

ii6

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

(f) Quasi-members. These comprise a number of white families
living in the district, of the same social class as the coloured
members, and a further small group of more or less resident
and official white persons and families such as the local clergy,
school teachers, social workers, etc. Of these, the first-named,
by reason of their social category and habitation here, share to
some extent the same common body of experience as the coloured
community as a whole, though their common sympathy is more
doubtful.* The latter group has little beyond common residence
to justify its inclusion, and on the whole, with perhaps one or two
significant exceptions, is easily recognizable by the extent of the
social as well as the racial distance which separates it from the
rest of the inhabitants of the community-area. The “poor
whites” necessarily make a certain amount of social contact
with the coloured members in terms of shopping, A.R.P. duties,
etc., and there are no barriers between the children; but among
the more official white elements there is not a little tendency to
hold aloof. This seems to be due as much to lack of understand-
ing as to lack of sympathy. They are the only section which
feels called upon to “explain” their neighbours, and the explana-
tions offered vary considerably, ranging from the sentimental
to the economic, and invoking at its most baffled the mysteries
of human heredity. Conversely, the attitudes of the community
proper leave no doubt that it recognizes this “symbiosis”, and is
in the main apathetic or suspicious, with, however, a number of
notable exceptions where personal contacts have led either to
quite friendly reciprocity or to scarcely veiled hostility. Such
contacts fall mainly, but not exclusively, under the category of
social work, men’s clubs, boys’ clubs, etc., where the possibilities
of sociability are somewhat in line with the general pattern of the
EngUsh social system; and in one or two less usual associations,
such as air-raid wardens’ posts, where on a minor scale, and with
some dozen different nationalities involved, an interesting

^ This was evident at the end of the First World war when several residents wrote
letters to the newspapers complaining of the presence of the coloured people. E.g,:
“A soldier returning to the district from the war cannot help regretting that houses
all round him are tenanted by coloured people. Before the war his neighbours were
his friends. What a shock it has been to these lads returning home to be married to
find coloured there,” Western Mail, 1919. Possibly, however, these comments were
indicative merely of the last “resistance” of the neighbourhood, because some 17
years later at the time of the Richardson report (see pp. 81-3) several white residents
wrote of their coloured neighbours in more favourable terms.

sociology; life and labour 117

illustration of international and inter-racial co-operation is
afforded. ^

3. Relations within the Community

(a) The Criteria of Status. The significance and implications
of colour have already been stressed when speaking of Loudoun
Square’s relations with the outside world. In examining the
social attitudes and etiquette inside the community it is not
surprising to find that the question of pigmentation occupies
a great deal of attention. This, it will already be evident, is
mainly because white values and social standards play a large
part in the determination of the community’s sociology. In this
respect the processes of marital selection are as good an indication
as any, and in the case of the girls these seem to be almost ex-
clusively confined “endogamously” to persons of their own
community and colour. It is plain from the random sample
quoted on a previous page that quite a number of such unions
have already taken place, and although marriage with a white
man is not entirely ruled out, it is doubtful if any but the lightest-
skinned girls are ever offered the opportunity. ^ The young men,
however, have wider opportunities and choice, and it is fairly

^ There were two Air Raid Wardens’ Posts, one at the Anglican church and the
other at the Wesleyan Methodist church at the other end of the district. The latter
was manned, apparently very conscientiously and efficiently, by the Missioner as
warden; sub- warden, a Maltese boarding-house keeper; and a number of West
Indian, West African, Arab, Jewish, and coloured men and women as wardens and
messengers. The A.R.P. duties in the district in general appear to have brought
about quite a strong sense of comradeship and co-operation, and in this respect the
Missioner ’s enthusiasm and bent for organization seem to have earned their reward.
The investigator was present at an inaugural meeting of fire-watchers, where a
graphic, and in terms of its purpose very effective description was given of the burning
of Rotterdam by the Germans.

One of the reasons advanced by the girls of mixed blood themselves is that they
arc unwilling to marry a white man, as they are afraid he may refer to them, or call
them, by the term “dirty nigger”. This, however, is probably no more than their
method of compensating for the limited possibilities of marrying a white,
cf. also a letter in the South Wales Echo and Express, June, 1932:

“I am a young girl of Barry, but being half English would like to know why young
men despise girls of my type, whereas one sees many half-caste men accompanying
white girls” (note that the writer does not apply the term “half-caste” to herself).
Another correspondent, however, disclaims the above aspersion;

“I am the son of a Jamaican father and an English mother, and I have three
sisters. It is definitely wrong to say that the coloured girls in Cardiff are shunned by
coloured men. All three of my sisters are married to coloured men, and I do not know
of any three coloured girls in Cardiff of marriageable age who are not either married
or courting coloured men.”

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

Il8

evident that they deliberately seek out and marry, when they can,
white girls in preference to girls of their own colour.^ In fairly
general terms, too, it is evident that within the community
itself the degree of pigmentation of the skin is of as much
importance as any other cause in affixing social status both
in the case of the individual and of the various ethnic groups.
The extent of such a bias is difficult to assess in view of
the sectarian nature of the population, but certainly amongst the
white section, and perhaps even more markedly amongst the
“Mixed Bloods”, there appears to exist a succinct belief that
the Africans occupy the lowest social place — lower, for example,
than the Arabs and the Malays. To be married to an Arab
confers more social prestige than having a Negro husband.^
This, however, is far from saying that the African or West
Indian members are regarded as less worthy as personalities,
for social factors have also to be taken into account, such as
personal habits, abstinence from drink, degree of educational
equipment, religious affiliations, etc. The apparent conflict of
ideas arises culturally out of the as yet unanalysed belief in the
disgrace of colour, present in the greater English society. Even,
therefore, if the attachment of inferiority to the deeper-coloured
person is not altogether a satisfactory description of this attitude,
there is no doubt that it is an overriding consideration, and that
deeper pigmentation is definitely “unfashionable” even in
Loudoun Square. Though far from accepting the premises on
which it is founded, the older Africans and West Indians take
these notions more or less as a matter of course, and in so far as
they accord social values, look upon the possession, and in
particular, the display of (European) education and middle-
class social etiquette as deserving of a considerable amount of

^ Miss Nancie Sharpe (unpubl, MSS.,

1932) offers the following data in respect

to this question in Cardiff:

Children of coloured men who married

Husbands or

wives

who were:

WhiU. ^'Mixed*\

Coloured,

Girls-~“mixed**

1 I

»3

coloured

I

Boys-~“mixed’*

9 I

—

* A white housewife was heard to remark that she had been obliged that morning
to go up and see the schoolmaster because some of the children had called her son a
nigger. “Everyone knows that his father was an Arab,** she indignantly complained.
It is possible to perceive a certain amount of condescension, also, in the manner of
Arab shopkeepers towards their Negro customers.

sociology: life and labour

”9

emulation and approbation. The Arabs seem to be little troubled
by the colour impUcations — no doubt because they are least
affected by the influence of the outside world — and in this
particular respect preserve the most truly neutral attitude of any
group. On the other hand, both they and the much smaller
Malay element are inclined to impugn the Negro more on
cultural grounds, and on the whole, granting even the linguistic
difficulties, the extent to which fraternization is carried on between
the groups is very variable. There is no doubt that the cultural
pride and solidarity of the Arabs is strong, as is also their pride
in British nationality, but their general attitude towards the
outside world is far more tolerant than accommodating in its
implications.

(b) Social etiquette. In so comphcated a context, it is
but natural that there should be a number of clearly prescribed
rules of etiquette for the purposes of cross-segment social inter-
course. It is a very great insult, for example, except amongst
friends and comrades, to use the term “Nigger”,^ or any similar
colloquialism, such as “Sambo”. Among friends, however, the
term “Nig” is used in the younger set and is accepted as a jocular
form of address. The term “half-caste” is generally eschewed,
but is sometimes used by a coloured person to describe another
to an outsider and is usually accepted without particular offence
from the latter. All persons possessing a dark colour, or any
African blood, prefer as a rule to be referred to simply as
“coloured”, and that is their usual description of themselves.
Many of the West Afiicans and West Indians, however, like to
be termed “Africans”, or more formally “men of African origin”,
and amongst themselves they designate each other more specific-
ally as “Gold Coastian”, etc., though here again, somewhat as
with the term “Nig”, the phrase “black man” is also employed.
The term “Negro” is less popular, and is disliked by some,
mainly on account of its former implications of slavery. From
the point of view of the white members of the community, Arabs

^ In particular the term “dirty nigger” may be regarded as a casus belli or battle
cry in racial conflict, cf. also R. R. Moton, What the Negro Thinks (publ. S. G. M.) —
“It is . . . true that certain elements of the race bandy this term (Nigger) lightly back
and forth among themselves; but this does not confute the fact that all Negroes
everywhere resent being called ‘nigger* by any white person under any circumstances,
and even when the term is used in badgering among themselves it is intended to
convey, good-naturedly, a certain contemptuous disregard for the other*s estimate of
himself. . ..**

120 NEGROES IN BRITAIN

and other light-skinned non-Europeans do not appear to come
under the designation “coloured”, and provided their race or
nationality is known, are referred to simply as Arabs, etc. The
term used by the African and other coloured males, including
the younger generation, for a married woman or consort is
“the Missus”, or simply “Missus”. The form used by one white
woman to another is very often simply “Love”, although “Auntie”
seems sometimes to be in use in a classificatory sense for women
of a rather older generation addressed by their juniors.

The Africans are by far the most ceremonious members of
the community, and granting even the linguistic and cultural
difficulties of estimating the Arabs, appear to be also the most
cultured (using the word in its conventional sense). As we have
said, many of them retain a great pride in their native institutions,
which stands out in somewhat naive contrast to their desire to
emulate English cultural traits. This same pride is accompanied
on the one hand by a certain tinge of sentimental yearning for
their homeland, and on the other by an apparently equivalent
fear as to their reception there in terms of family welcome and
personal prestige. Not a few of them left home very many years
ago as young men against the wishes of their parents, sometimes
because they were in trouble of some kind. Among many of the
peoples of the Coast the seaman’s occupation is thought
appropriate only to a ne’er-do-well or to the fairly generally
despised Kru, while among the anglicised classes it is accorded
no higher status than in Britain. As one informant explained,
there is an idea common in parts of West Africa and other
Colonies that a man who comes to England is bound to make his
fortune. ^ If on returning to his native town he was unable to
take a house and live in the style and convention expected of his
years, the family dignity would be considerably lowered: it
might even jeopardize the marital prospects of his nephews.^
The pride of these men in Africa and in themselves as Africans
is tempered also with a certain degree of appreciation of the
frailties of some of their group, mainly in terms of sexual

^ This sentiment seems to involve much the same implications as the older country-
man’s view of London, Dublin or any other capital city — “the streets of London are
paved with gold”.

* While there is a great deal of self-pity and rationalization in these explanations,
their general validity seems to be borne out by the attitude of many West African
students, who also show on occasions a similar diffidence about returning home
without the requisite symbols of success, such as university degrees.

sociology: life and labour

I2I

behaviour. ^ Amongst this section of the community the common-
est form of salutation is the handshake, although an outsider will
often be greeted by the raising of the hat. The Arabs greet each
other more ritualistically, and the kiss is often exchanged.
Except among the younger generation, the sexes are rather rarely
seen together out of doors, unless when going to church, or on a
trip out of the district. Even on their way out of church the males
tend immediately to split off into groups of their own sex. Some
of the public houses also segregate the women, or make an
official restriction on the length of time that women may remain
in the bar. Again, in the streets, which on fine afternoons and
evenings are the main centres of social gathering and intercourse,
the social groups are almost entirely confined to men, although
the women are frequently to be seen conversing with the men-
folk from their doorways or doorsteps. It seems fairly certain
that the main reason for this obvious sexual differentiation is a
matter of custom rather than of common sympathy between
wives and husbands. The very presence of so many males
around the place seems to indicate a strong pattern of masculin-
ity, and this, coupled with the diverse cultural and occupationally
conditioned outlook of the men, makes it exceedingly difficult
to compare the situation here with any but a society of similar
type.

4. Economics

(a) Occupations and Wages. In the absence of complete data
it must suffice here to indicate the general rather than the speeific
economic condition of the community. The paramount male
occupation is, of course, seafaring, which covers, in order of
numerical importance, firemen and trimmers, greasers, ordinary

^ As much as for condoning or permitting moral laxities in the case of their wives.
This in part explains why home visiting appears to be somewhat rare. One man will
be very good friends with another in the street, but will not think of entering the other's
home lest the latter's wife should think she can take liberties with him. This is not
to say that he is a moralist, but he thinks the line should be drawn somewhere. He
recognizes certain public attitudes as to the Negro's frailties, and is all the more anxious
that the aspersions should not be proved true in his case. In the present community,
the Gold Coast men seemed to be particularly self-conscious on this point, and
showed the greatest degree of national consciousness and pride. The “pride" of the
Gold Coastian, particularly the Ashanti, is well known amongst West Africans
themselves, and the Gold Coastian himself likes the trait to be acknowledged.

5*

122

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

seamen and donkeymen. From one random sample (taken
on a Sunday afternoon) of men showing the M.N. (Merchant
Navy) badge on their coat-lapel, it would appear that at least
two-thirds of the adult population, perhaps even more, follow this
calling. The remaining male occupations, with few excep-
tions, are also in some way connected with the sea. Moreover,
as we have already seen, in “normal” times, owing partly to
lack of training and aptitude for other occupations, and partly
to colour prejudice, this is virtually the only form of employment
open to the younger males. Other occupations are varied, and
include manual work for the Corporation or for private con-
tractors, and general nawying; dredger-work; semi-skilled
mechanical work in a garage or driving a lorry; boarding-house
keeping; shopkeeping; night- watching; and a number of less
orthodox means of earning a living, such as “dealing”, touting,
and unofficial bookmaking. The number of coloured males in
clerical employment is insignificant.

The dominant female occupation is, of course, domestic work.
Some of the younger women and girls work in houses outside
the area, and some in households other than their own in the
Loudoun Square quarter itself. Girls whose parents keep a
boarding house usually look after the book-keeping and general
clerical work which the regulations for such establishments
demand. Further female occupations are almost without excep-
tion of the semi-skilled or unskilled variety, e.g. work in resin,
jam, and rag factories, and during the war in ammunition
factories; a few work in up-town cafes and supper-bars, and as
cleaners in the more “respectable” Bute Street public houses.^

In the state of war-time activity which operated at the time
of this investigation, most potential wage-earners in the com-
munity were fully employed, and with some alleviation of the
colour bar it would be impossible to speak of the coloured folk
as poverty-stricken, despite all the hardship, unemployment,
etc., described in a previous chapter. With seafaring as the major
occupation, the present wage scale for merchant seamen, given

^ The fact that Cardiff is a distributive rather than a manufacturing centre means
that although a fair number of casual, blind alley jobs, such as messenger and errand
boy, are available, there is less chance of steady and progressive openings for all
juveniles in the city, white as well as coloured. In the latter case, ostracism by female
fellow workers, the apparent difficulty of coloured girls in settling down to a routine
job, such as domestic service, and so on, all go to augment the economic difficulties
of the matter.

sociology: life and labour 123

below, provides some measure of the present situation in this
respect:

£ s. d.

Fireman . . .1126 per month.

Trimmer . . . 10 2 6 „ „

Ordinary Seaman . .776,, „

Donkeyman . . . 12 2 6 „ „ ‘

To these wages must be added, of course, food on board ship,
and also a number of war-time increments, viz. Seafarer’s Risk
Money, j(^io per month, and a differential payment of per
month while on articles. In other words, a fireman’s total
remuneration, while on articles, would be some ^{^23 per month
gross. The usual practice is for married men and those with
dependents to write out an Allotment Note before sailing, and
the amount allotted is paid by the shipping company to the person
described on the note. Before the Second World War, the usual
amount allotted by a married man was 10 per month; in present
circumstances allotments are in the neighbourhood of ,^15 per
month. The usual mechanism of payment also includes the
Advance Note issued at the time of signing on, and a lump
payment at the end of the trip of whatever arrears have accumu-
lated during it. The sum covered by the Advance Note is payable
to any named relative, and usually serves to tide things over at
home until the arrival of the allotment at the end of the first
month. Thus, although it is possible to make a seaman’s income
regular by judicious arrangements, the method of payment does
not encourage a habit of steady expenditure. It is easy to see
how at the end of a long voyage a man coming ashore with a fair
amount of money in his pocket may be tempted to give himself
and everyone else a “good time”, with the result that the money
which in another occupation would go towards providing basic
necessities, clothing, furniture, etc., is quickly spent on “luxury”
goods, which really lie far beyond the scope of the seaman’s
income. The coloured seaman is as fond of sociability as anyone:
if he has any children he likes to see them well and even ex-
pensively clad, and very often he delights in giving them sums of
money. Moreover, not a few of the coloured men are less
accustomed to the value of money than the ordinary white
worker. They therefore find thrift more difficult, and the general
result is to unbalance a budget which at the best of times is only

^ National Maritime Board Scale, October, 194a.

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

124

precarious. Largely for these reasons, and because of the frequent
absence of the male head at sea, the economic affairs of the house-
hold are managed mainly by the white housewife or consort.
So far as the writer is aware no extensive study of the household
budgetting of a seafaring community as such has been made, but
it would probably produce some interesting results. It is even
arguable that its computation on the basis of a different and higher
minimum standard of needs than in other occupations is required
on account of the peculiar psychological and industrial factors
present.

(b) Other Earnings. The available shore jobs bring in rather
less than the money at present to be earned at sea. One African
reported that he was earning ,{^4 10 o per week as a lorry driver;
a labourer was getting 16 o; a worker in Civil Defence

16 8d.; another on contract work 15 o; and a boilerman

10 o, and similar amounts were being earned in Corporation
employment. An Arab shopkeeper stated that all his one hundred
or so registered customers took all their rationed goods, while
in addition he sold a large quantity of supplementary goods —
greens, potatoes, and other vegetables, as well as sweet biscuits
when available.

(c) The Implications of Rent. One of the most important and
(in terms of the large-sized houses in the area) most essential
sources of income is the boarding of lodgers and the sub-letting
of rooms. Boarding costs are computed at about 25 /- per week,
for which a light breakfast, sandwiches for luncheon, and a
larger meal in the evening are provided, in addition to a room.
The practice of boarding ostensibly applies only in the case of
lodgers who are not seamen, as seafarers must by law be accom-
modated in a house which has been officially registered for the
purpose; at such houses similar rates are charged. Unfurnished
rooms are also let for storage purposes at 4/- to 6 /- per week.

There is no doubt that the rents of the houses in the area are
inordinately high, and even taking into account the general
house shortage in Cardiff and the high rents in other working-
class districts, the Bute Town rents still compare very unfavour-
ably. Another reason^ for this is understood to be the high

^ Most of the houses in the district are held on a leasehold basis, and after their
term of 99 years, which is close to expiration, they revert to the ground landlord
in good condition on valuation.

sociology: life and labour

125

assessment on the Loudoun Square type of house, which means,
in effect, that tenants pay rents (1942) which, including rates,
range from 20/- to 30/- per week for a house of three to four
bedrooms and two or three other rooms. In the adjacent streets
such as Maria Street, where the houses are smaller, rents in-
cluding rates vary from 18/- to 25/- per week. In most cases,
electric light and gas are available, but other important amenities
such as baths are generally absent, ^ and the contrast between the
cost of this type of house and the newer Corporation parlour
type, which has three bedrooms and is let in the suburbs at
1 3 /yd. or 1 5 /3d. per week according to distance from the city,
is remarkable in terms of amenities as well as costs. So far as
rentals are concerned, it is possible that the position of the coloured
families of Cardiff is even more extreme than that discovered
by a recent survey in Liverpool.^ It was found there that the
average coloured seaman was paying a higher rent than the
corresponding average white family, and the suggestion was made
that the rent charged to coloured families may be a not un-
important factor in their “depressed” condition of life. This
point is of special interest in view of the segregative factors also
at work in Cardiff. It is further interesting to note that the
Cardiff rents are possibly even higher than those paid in the case
of the Liverpool families, where the median rent for y-roomed
houses was 20/- per week, and for 8-roomed houses 32/- per week.

On the basis of a small sample of thirteen Cardiff households
it appeared that rent and rates absorbed some 22 per cent, of their
weekly income, and that the average rent paid was iq/sd. per
week for six rooms. In the case of the Loudoun Square district,
as, of course, in Liverpool also, sub-letting of part of the house is
the usual method of meeting the difficulty of large houses and
high rents, ^ and it is reported that the sub-letting of some of the

^ Out of a random sample of 13 houses occupied by coloured families, only one
had a bathroom.

^ Univ. of Liverpool, Social Science Dept., The Economic Status of Coloured Families
in the Port of Liverpool, pp. 17—18.

® This fragmentation of the one-time single family dwelling house into separate
structural apartments provides an illuminating insight into the economic process
whereby the poorer-class immigrants are able to “drive out** the better-class residents,
cf. H. W. Zorbaugh, op, cit., p. 147 — “The story of this Negro invasion is the old story
of the competition of standards of living. Willing to live in dwellings that even the
Sicilian had abandoned, willing to pay higher rates than the Sicilian had paid,
meeting these rents by overcrowding, the Negro has slowly but steadily pushed his
way in among the Sicilians, who in turn have begun to move northward toward
North Avenue, into the German slum.*’

126

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

Cardiff houses brings in as much as ^{^150 per annum in rent to the
owner or first tenant.

(d) Family Budgets. In the same short enquiry an attempt was
made to obtain some idea of the family budget. A questionnaire
(see Appendix, p. 163) asking for particulars of weekly earnings
of members of the family and expenditure on rent, food, clothing,
furniture, personal items, etc., was distributed amongst a number
of families, selected as “suitable” by an African helper,^ and 13
forms were eventually returned. It was explained to the heads
of households and other members of the families in question that
a weekly estimate of these particulars was required and their
careful co-operation to this end was sought. The details supplied
are recorded in Table A. One difficulty in treating and inter-
preting them arises from the casual and very complicated nature
of employment in the merchant service as mentioned above.
The rates of pay there quoted, of course, apply only whilst the
seaman is actually at sea and on articles. Between voyages and
under war-time conditions he is on the Reserve Pool of merchant
seamen, and receives a different and lower rate of pay, which
varies according to his job afloat. This means that it is virtually
impossible to estimate the weekly income except in retrospect,
and for this reason a number of the returns show earnings under
hypothetical conditions as well as at the time the particulars
were collected. Summarized and analysed, these particulars
provide the following average figures per household:

£ s. d.

Income on present basis . . . -479

Income on optimum basis . . . .546

(e.g. when continuously employed on articles)

Expenditure on Rent . . . . . 19 5

Food . . . . . 2 14 3

Clothing .... 59

Coal ..... 4

Gas 4 5 i

Light ..... 17

Household and Personal Sundries 15 4

Total £556

The items of expenditure were further analysed in terms of their

^ The families selected all included children of school age. It was explained that
the main reason for the enquiries was in order to obtain some quantitative estimate
of the economic difficulties of sending a child on to a secondary school.

Table A. The Family Budgets of 13 Coloured Families
(Amounts shown as shillings and decimal parts of a shilling)

sociology: life and labour

w lO CO coco Oi w I

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----dco-dddd--

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awooMi Tvxox O) d t^co i^oo d — o

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* Includes payments from lodgers
f Includes Pension

128

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

percentage distribution and then compared with standard
estimates drawn up by the Ministry of Labour. The following
results were obtained:

Food

Rent

Fuel and Light
Clothing .
Miscellaneous

Coloured Families

5 1 - 5 %

18.5%

10.0%

5 - 5 %

14-5%

Ministry of Labour

50%

16%

18%

12%

4 %

Considering the methodological objections which can be
raised against the latter data the discrepancies are not over-great.
It is evident that the coloured families have underestimated
their outlay on clothing, although here it is also possible that their
expenditure on “Clubs” amounting to an average of 3/8d. per
household (with two returns omitted) partly covers the matter,
and is counter-balanced by the larger proportion on Mis-
cellaneous items, inclusive of household and personal sundries.
In any case, it would be as well to regard the comparison with
the greatest caution, having in mind the small size of the sample
concerned, the method by which it was selected, and the possi-
bilities of bias as well as inadvertent inaccuracies in the estimates
supplied. ^

The same data were used for a rough and equally tentative
estimate of the families concerned in terms of a hypothetical
minimum standard of needs. Costs and allowances worked out
by Miss Nancie Sharpe in the course of an economic investigation
into the standard of living of the coloured folk in 1932^ were

^ One interesting omission from the returns is that of lodgers as a source of income.
Only two forms record instances of this form of earning, although eight out of the
thirteen households concerned contain six or more rooms. Having in view the stated
object of the inc^uiry — to assess the economic ability of coloured parents to afford
secondary schooling for their children — it is also very likely that a conscious or un-
conscious attempt was made in some instances, though not in all, to produce as strong
a case as possible. The mother of one household whom the writer personally inter-
viewed was inclined to view the suggestion of economic assistance in her, case as a
slight on her social status, and appeared anxious for that reason to make her position
out to be more favourable than it really was.

* op. cit. Nancie Sharpe unpublished MSS. Miss Sharpe estimated at the time
that only two out of eleven Cardiff families were likely to be always above the poverty
line. The minimum standard of needs consisted of the weekly amount required, per
person, to provide the bare minimum of food, light, cleaning materials, and clothes
necessary to health, provided it is laid out to the best advantage. It allows for no
saving for emergencies of any description, no amusements, newspapers, or tobacco,
.and no holidays. The standard adopted was a simplified and rather more generoUfS

Household No, Minimum Standard Minimum Income Maximum Income

of Needs* as reported as reported

sociology: life and labour

129

Shown in decimal parts of a shilling

130

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

used as a basis for this, being brought approximately up to date
and adjusted to the present cost of living (1943) by means of
Ministry of Labour indices. The results obtained are shown in
Table B. It will be seen from this that on the basis of their present
reported income, six out of the thirteen families fall short of the
minimum standard, although all but one are apparently “secure”
on the basis of optimum incomes. Against this, however, it must
be remembered that nearly all the households concerned have
allotted themselves personal allowances varying from 2 /- to 9 /-
per week, a feature which is omitted from the Poverty standard,
and bearing this as well as the factors mentioned above in mind,
the present evidence, incomplete as it is, suggests that the
question of less than bare subsistence is present, but not
general.

(e) Savings, etc. Perhaps the greatest difficulty here, as in
practically any similar computation, arises from the family’s
method of spending and distributing its income. It is one thing
for the theorist with a nicely arranged and assorted scale of
market prices before him to say exactly how much money, having
due regard to the maximum benefit to be derived, should be spent
on given items of rent, food and clothing. It is quite another thing,
even apart from the “pull” of individual habits and tastes, for a
housewife whose day is spent partly in a factory and partly
amidst the manifold duties of her home to be cognisant of and to
have immediate access to all the vagaries of the market. The
implications of the latter point are borne out as strikingly in the
community with which we are concerned as anywhere. Low-
rented and “economical” houses are virtually unobtainable in
the district, employment, generally speaking, is of a very casual
nature, and earnings tend to vary from week to week as well as
from month to month. The nearest cheap market is up in the city,
and most organized forms of entertainment require a journey
by tram or bus. Habits of expenditure on “luxury” articles, such

form of that in use by one of the larger social surveys in progress at that time. The
allowances per person were:

Man or woman over i8 . . .8/- per week.

Adolescents 14-18 . . . • 7/- „ »

First child (if under 14) . . • 7/-* 1, »

Each other child 5-14 .... 6/- „ „

Each other child under 5 . . • 5/“ » »

To the above allowances was added a flat rate for coal of 1 /6 per family, and the
sum thus arrived at, plus the family’s rent, constituted the Poverty Standard for each
family.

sociology: life and labour 131

as wireless sets and radiograms,^ are encouraged by the lump
sum method of paying off already described, and by hire-purchase
terms and other credit facilities.^ Yet despite all this, and the
fairly widespread habit of gambling (see p. 140) several of the
coloured men succeed in putting aside quite substantial sums of
money, particularly if they are in business, and banking accounts
are used in some instances, and by the “Europeanized” Arabs,
who send money by this means back to their relatives in Aden.
The less conventional method of banking with the Sheikh among
the Moslems has already been described, and it appears that some-
what similar advantage is taken of the services of the Methodist
missioner by a few of the less literate members of his flock.
Generally speaking, however, the disbursement of funds is left
in the hands of the female partner,^ who is sometimes called
upon to handle quite large sums of money, as, for example, in
the more “consanguineous” family units, when a man’s brother
or some other relative or connection is in the habit of making
out his allotment note to the woman of the house. The latter
custom, not uncommon amongst “unattached” males, is another
factor complicating any reasonable assessment of the family
budget within this community.

^ Many of the houses in the district contain a “best room** in which will be found
quite expensive articles of furniture, such as sets of tables and chairs, and a large
assortment of bric-^-brac, china, candlesticks, sometimes a piano, dishes, etc. To
some extent these represent no doubt a form of economic investment as well as serving
as a mark of social status. Wireless sets too arc quite generally owned and arc often
of an expensive quality.

® Day to day purchases, for example of food, are usually made in small quantities
and appear in the majority of cases to be paid for in cash on the spot, although
credit is allowed in well-accredited cases. Furniture, in particular, and very
often clothing, appears to be bought almost entirely on the hire-purchase system,
which also includes the system of saving known as the “club**. It is doubtful if actual
moneylending or usury (see above on the habits of the Moslems) plays much part,
largely, perhaps, because of the Moneylenders Act of 1927, which restricted the rate
of interest to 48% (at which figure, in view of the high risk, moneylending among
working-class people is hardly a profitable business). There is, however, another
interesting form of credit operated by a concern which will give a check for £1 upon
payment to them of i /-. The check can be spent with any tradesman on their Ibt.
The company then pay the tradesman, less 17^% on presentation of their check, and
collect weekly shillings from the customer until the amount is paid off.

® There appears to be a rather important exception to this rule in the case of
many of the Moslems, particularly those who are established in shore jobs. The
distinction is this respect is related quite probably to the more “dominant** rule
arising from their religion which is exercised by the males in these households.

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5. Social and Political Control

Both Police and Probation Officers bear witness to the com-
parative absence of delinquency in the coloured district; and this
is all the more significant in view of the popular idea of the area.
“They’re all right if you leave them alone,” was the comment of
one high official. Neither department was able to supply
any comparative statistics for the various wards of the city,
but the Probation officers in particular stressed the relative
insignificance of juvenile crime in the dock area. ^

Without discounting in any way the peaceableness of Bute
Town at the present day, it is, of course, doubtful, as the very
existence of Bute Street indicates, whether statistics would supply
more than a partial index of “law and order”. The very separation
of the area from the city proper, as well as the distinct character
of its inhabitants, perhaps tends to lend support to the view that
the wisest judge is he who adapts himself most closely to the
mores', and gives extra pertinence to the remark above quoted.^
This is not to deny that the law is enforced in the dock area, but
simply to stress the obvious fact that here, just as anywhere else,
public control is maintained in the last analysis socially rather
than extraneously. This is all the more evident in view of a certain
degree of mutual antagonism which exists between the community
and the Police and Courts. Feeling themselves already at odds
with the outside world, the coloured men on the one hand
resent any attempt at dragooning and “interference” with their
affairs, and on the other are often correspondingly zealous to see

^ The officer in question offered an interesting criterion in support of his argument.
It is his duty and practice to visit the homes of children who have been before the
Juvenile Court, in order to sec under what conditions they are being brought up.
In one working-class district — Splott — his visits were very unwelcome to, and even
dreaded by, the parents, because they signalized to neighbours that the household
in question had been getting into trouble. In the dock area, on the other hand, he
invariably met with a much more friendly reception, and this he attributed to the
fact that his visits were not frequent enough for their purpose to be generally re-
cognized there. But it is possible that a difference in community attitudes towards his
mission would also explain his different reception.

* See the remarks on Bute Street as a “vice quarter” in the chapter on “Maritime
Setting of the Community”, p. 47. Rather more attention seems to be paid
to the suspected political than to the criminal activities of the neighbourhood. At a
meeting of the community advertised as having reference to the coloured children the
only white man present was a plain-clothes policeman. It is understood that all public
meetings are similarly attended. The reason seems to be a fear of Communist propa-
ganda and activity.

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133

that their good name is not impugned through the misdemeanour
of any of their number. This explains the strong objection many
of them have to the street gambling (see p. 141), and accounts
in part for their occasional violent denunciation of some fellow-
member of the race for some more or less domestic frailty. Again,
for a large proportion of the community, Islam in its legal as well
as its religious aspects enjoins a strong sense of propriety and self-
discipline. A sanction which is far more meaningful to those it
affects than any imposed from outside would be is secured on
occasion by the withdrawal of financial as well as social support,
and extends even to the enforcement of some degree of control
over the wives of fellow-members when the former offend.

It will be obvious from this, as well as from the previous
analysis of the social structure of the community, that social
control is effected largely through specific groupings and cliques.
Situations as well as conduct are defined mainly by comment and
by talk. ^ The fact that, when ashore, the men meet few persons
except of their own kind means that a great deal of their time
is spent in detailed discussion of each other’s affairs. The extreme
sectionalism which prevails also means that, although control
over personal and private affairs is in some respects limited to a
fairly narrow circle, completely communal and political action
is possible, and, though rare, it is by no means unknown. It
seems to be achieved only in case of absolute necessity and when
more immediate interests and the very existence of every separate
group are directly involved. It will be recalled, for example, that
the crisis resulting from the Shipping Assistance Act brought
about the institution of a special committee composed of repre-
sentatives of all sections. West Indians, West Africans, Somalis,
Arabs, etc., who collaborated for a common ^nd — the survival
of the community as a whole. Yet it is doubtful if even this
instance of co-operation would have come about had it not been
for the energy and initiative of one man, the leader of the Colonial
Defence League. It is significant that ten years earlier, when
applying the Aliens Order to the coloured seamen, the Police
were able to assure one section, the West Indians, that the Order
was aimed at another section, the Arabs, without provoking

^ The situation here is in many ways not unreminiscent of the village, or scene
of primary contacts, which Thomas and other writers have exemplified as agencies
of maximum control, cf. W. I. Thomas and F. Znaniecki, The Polish Peasant in
Europe and America^ and W. I. Thomas, The Unadjusted Girl (esp. pp. 42-59).

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134

any form of common reaction. Again, only two years before this,
sections of the Arabs themselves, numbering several hundreds,
fought out an industrial dispute with knives and sticks in the
Cardiff docks. ^ Even to-day, factionalism among the Negroes
on the one hand, and the Moslems on the other, is not uncommon.
There is a definite tendency for Sierra Leoneans, Nigerians,
etc., and sometimes even tribal divisions of the latter, to keep to
themselves in small cUques. One Gold Coast man, commenting
adversely on the domestic affairs of a Freetownian, referred
pointedly to the latter and his comrades as “sons of freed slaves”.
A frequent comment was that the Africans are “split tribally”,
and other Africans, the Kru in particular, were given a strong
reputation for “keeping to themselves” and unwillingness to
co-operate on racial lines. The West Indians, too, tend to keep
somewhat apart, and even to group themselves according to the
islands from which they originate. Although they achieve
religious harmony, Arabs and Somalis also keep somewhat
apart, and Arab and Somali crews are signed on separately.^
Between the Somalis and the Negroes the gap seems on occasion
to be even wider, and individual Somalis and Arabs speak
disparagingly of members of the Negro race.

In these circumstances it is not surprising that all the aspirants
to political influence in the community should have appreciated
the necessity of unifying their potential followers, and in this
respect, if in no other, the main champions meet on common
ground. As already mentioned, there are two main and rival
associations in the field, the Sons of Africa and the Colonial
Defence League. The latter has a fairly close connection with
the Cardiff Communist Party, which in turn has a watching
brief over the affairs of the community. Until recently, the Sons
of Africa professed themselves merely “cultural” and non-

^ cf, Manchester Guardian^ 14th July, 1923;

“Tribal disputes between Arab seamen led to a riot of grave proportions in Cardiff.
Some 800 coloured men were involved. Knives were used freely and the police had to
make a truncheon charge before order was restored. Injuries were numerous, but
there were no deaths.

“About 10.30 a.m. a great number of Arabs of different tribes assembled outside
the offices of the Board of Trade in Bute Street. Chamari tribesmen, who formed the
greater proportion of the crowd, attempted to prevent members of the Adenese and
other tribes from securing engagements in ships.”

* The secretary of the local seamen’s union stated that although West Indians
and West African crews are sometimes signed on together, Arabs and Negroes cannot
be mixed. Arabs prefer to keep together for cultural reasons. The signing-on is now
effected on a nationality system of rotas.

sociology: life and labour 135

political. ^ They have been obliged by force of circumstances to
adopt a more positive line of appeal in order to survive owing to
the alleged “betrayal” of the community by one of their members
over certain Colonial Office proposals. The individual in question
was disowned by the Association and so great was the strength
of local feeling that, it appears, he left the district rather than
remain the continual object of adverse and pointed comment.

This incident showed conclusively that, despite internal jealousies
and rivalries, the community is well able in time of crisis to
effect some form of political unity in the face of common danger
from outside.

6. Family Life and General Social Behaviour

(a) The Family. It would be unwise, and is indeed impossible,
to generalize about either the family life or the social patterns
of the community. The situation is conditioned both by the
general cultural antecedents of the various sections and the
texture of the occupational background. On the whole, however,
the structure and habits of the family probably differ little from
those general in similar strata of British working-class society,
where in addition to the familiar “conjugal” household of the
West there is some tendency for married sons and daughters
and other near relatives to live in one or other parental home.
Apart from the usual economic reason for this practice, the colour
complex has also a bearing in this case. The difficulty of securing
accommodation in other parts of the town disposes young married
couples to look no further than the neighbourhood in which
they were born, and some of the few who have gone farther
afield return as often as possible to their old haunts. ^ As the area,
particularly the smaller houses, is already well occupied, it is
not difficult to see how a rather more “consanguineous” pattern
is reinforced. On the other hand, it appears as if a fairly strong
movement, not so much up into the city proper or its suburbs,

^ According to one informant, the Sons of Africa was started by a number of
people who objected to the “dictatorial” methods of the leader of the Colonial Defence
League, who up to that time seems to have had the field virtually to himself.

* A couple who had succeeded in securing a house in the Splott area on relatively
good terms admitted that although they were rather better off for amenities, they
missed very much the “old life” of Loudoun Square and its inhabitants.

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

136

but rather further south towards the extreme end of the Docks,
has been taking place in recent years. The latter district (see
map), containing Adelaide Street, South William Street, etc.,
lies about half a mile due south of Loudoun Square, is separated
from it only by the docks business quarter, and almost touches
the waterfront. It seems previously to have been almost exclus-
ively a Spanish and “poor white” area of settlement. Now, on
the basis of a random count, about one in every three of its
inhabitants is coloured. In other words, as happened previously
with Loudoun Square itself, it looks as if the “natural history”
of the city is repeating itself here, and the coloured immigrants
are gradually driving out the original settlers.^

As already mentioned, economic reasons require that the
larger type of house should be filled by a number of families or
their equivalent in terms of lodgers. The original family group,
therefore, is often surrounded by a small fringe of “unattached”
males, and it is fairly evident, particularly when the tenant and
lodger are fellow-countrymen, that the group functions as a
single economic unity. ^ The same applies, too, in cases where
relatives either share part of the same house, or “live with” the
family. On the basis of some 50 known families it was estimated
that the latter was the case in some 26 per cent, of the households
concerned; that both relatives and lodgers were living with an
original family in some 14 per cent, of cases; that lodgers alone
were taken in some 45 per cent, of cases, and that only some
15 per cent, of the families were living as independent house-
holds.

(b) Marital and other Relations. Apart from economic con-
siderations, there is no doubt that this situation has some effect
on sexual and extra-marital arrangements in general. Indeed,
in the lengthy absences of the husband and with the physical
proximity in which the younger people are placed, it would be
surprising to find it otherwise. Yet, in speaking of this matter,
it is necessary to proceed again with caution and with a due
regard for perspective. This is all the more essential as, in a

^ cf. H. W. Zorbaugh, op. cit.

2 Compare Oliver Madox Hueffer, Some of the English^ p. 37, which offers a useful
sociological description of life in a South London “slum”. “In many cases the ‘lodger*
was a connection by blood or marriage, a workman or ‘chum’ of the husband or wife,
and thus accepted as one of the family. ... In such cases the family ideal was less
interfered with and the small additional income a welcome extension to the family
budget.”

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previous report on an African community in this country, ^ some
stress was placed on the subject of promiscuity. In this respect,
so far as the Cardiff community is concerned, the impression
gained is that there is little difference between it and other
sections of English society with which it can appropriately be
compared. Moreover, what “irregularities” occur seem explicable
fairly readily either in terms of the habits and customs of the sea-
faring class as a whole, or of the peculiar comphcations which
arise in our society out of social and sexual contacts between
white and coloured persons. The general rule in the community
as elsewhere is for couples who live together to be legally married,
and in some respects it seems that a church is preferred to a
registry office marriage, sometimes for sociological as much as
religious reasons. In some cases, as already mentioned, the woman
has had an illegitimate child before marriage, and paternity is
avowedly sociological. Sometimes, too, couples who are not
married to each other, or of whom one or both has a spouse
elsewhere, maintain settled establishments, and provided their
general behaviour is in accordance with local notions of re-
spectability, are regarded in the same light as if they were married.
In any case, etiquette demands that the lady of the house be
addressed and spoken of by the conventional title applied to a
married or older woman of the married age group, i.e. “Missus”.
Apart, however from these orthodox forms, which provide the
preponderating type of establishment, a number of households
are run on more or less “polyandrous” lines. In addition to
either a legal or socially recognized husband, such a woman
may have one or even two other temporary “husbands”, whom
she accommodates in her house on their return from sea. In
some cases, she is virtually a professional “freelance”. In a few
cases the husband connives at the practice; in others, where it is
less frequent, he may be unaware of what is going on. In any
case, the woman concerned is in receipt as a rule of at least two
and sometimes even more separate allotments, which in a general
sense may be regarded as “retaining fees”. The business, though
precarious,^ can be a very profitable one while it lasts. Children
born of such alliances keep the surnames of their natural fathers,

^ Fletcher Report, op, cit,

* Obviously more precarious and complicated in war-time owing to security
reasons, c.g. no notice may be received of a man’s arrival before his ship docks in
Britain.

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138

and these frequently take a keen interest in the subsequent welfare
of their offspring, who may be adopted in some cases by a relative
or some vaguer connection of one of the parents. As already
mentioned, the coloured men as a whole are usually very fond
of their children, even to the extent of “spoiling” them by gifts
and attention. The attitude of the community towards domestic
arrangements of this kind varies. While not exactly condoning
“loose” behaviour, the general view seems to regard it with a
certain amount of toleration, provided the social consequences
are not too dire or too blatant. Individual coloured men, how-
ever, are inclined to look upon the matter very self-consciously,
and usually eschew deliberately any personal contact with the
women concerned, although they may remain good friends with
their menfolk. It appears to be the case also that a certain
sense of responsibility is incorporated in public opinion to the
extent of ensuring that a man does not often leave a woman whom
he knows he has made pregnant.^ According to Miss Nancie
Sharpe —

In sixty cases of coloured people living in London and Cardiff it was
possible to check the date of birth of the first child against the date of marriage.
In 41 cases, either marriage had not yet taken place though the parties had
been living together for years, or marriage took place after the birth or con-
ception of the first child. In 19 cases, however, marriage took place before the
conception of the first child. The sample could not be tested for reliability or
representativeness. *

It is obvious, however, that in considering extra-marital or
extra-legal practices a proper sense of perspective can be gained
only by comparison with white society, and for Britain there is no
means of effecting this. It has been estimated in Chicago, how-
ever (with some 3.38 million inhabitants) that nearly 500,000
extra-marital sex contacts take place weekly.^

The above-mentioned English observer’s impression of the
coloured households is that

The domestic relations of the families are often satisfactory, and maniage
is quite as often happy as is marriage between British peop le of the same stand-
ard of life. Some of the common difficulties which do not generally occur

^ In some cases, of course, men sail without knowing that the girl with whom they
have been consorting has become pregnant. (Miss Nancie Sharpe.)

* From unpublished material collected by Miss Nancie Sharpe, circa 1932.

® With various kinds of prostitutes such as “Juvenile”, “Potential”, “Amateur”,
“Young Professional”, “Old Professional”, “Field Workers”, “Bats”, “Gold Diggers”,
“Kept Women”, “Loose Married Women”, and “Call Girls”, cf. Reports of B. C.
Roloff, Chief Executive Secretary of the Illinois Social Hygiene League, quoted by
Joseph, op. cit. See abo Walter C. Reckless, op. cit.

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139

with coloured people are the question of the man keeping an undue amount
of his earnings, lack of care and thought for the woman in little things; the man
leaving all thought and work for the children to his wife, and the question of
drunkenness. The men are generally really attached to their homes and spend
much of their time there, they are affectionate and kind and make much of their
wives. Some of them are exceedingly thoughtful and do very much to help,
and they do their best for the children whom they almost spoil. When a
man is paid off his ship and comes home, the children certainly benefit from
the lump sum he brings. It is noteworthy that children of coloured men (see
later remarks) almost always appear well fed and are warmly dressed, in spite
of poverty. . . Testimony to happiness is given by the sympathy which most
of the white wives have with coloured people in general. They take sides
with them; they include themselves in the category of coloured, and talk of
“we”, and they join the coloured men’s societies. . . . Some, of course, have no
such sympathy and wish to dissociate themselves as far as possible from coloured
people, even speaking to their children as “you coloured”. These women are,
however, very much in the minority. Many women also pay tribute to their
husband’s qualities, and say they are happy. One woman said to me, rather
amusingly, but most decisively, “I wouldn’t change my husband for fifty white
men.”

The wives of Arab husbands, in particular, speak very highly
of their spouses and of their fidelity and thoughtful treatment.
Not infrequently, however, marital affairs are disorganized and
the household complicated by the implications of the colour
complex. A white girl in Cardiff in marrying a coloured man
runs a very considerable danger of social ostracism, not only firom
acquaintances and friends, ^ but from members of her own family.
The psychological effect of this will be obvious. Such a woman’s
position becomes even more difficult when she bears children and
the general psychological and emotional conflicts which are set
up • as a result between her and her previous family have re-
percussions on her relations with her husband. It is in no sense
surprising, therefore, that cases of desertion on either side some-
times occur, and in turn lead to the breaking up of such coloured-
white families and the placing of the coloured children with their
grandparents or with some other family with whom the mother
goes permanently to reside. This feature too sometimes gives rise
to the type of sexual behaviour mentioned above, when, as it is
important to realize, the only way of obtaining adequate
economic support for oneself and one’s family is by some extra-
legal arrangement or more illicit practice.^

^ One of the social functions of the Sons of Africa, it was explained to the writer,
was to “protect” the wives of members from the “cold shoulders” and insults which
they were liable to receive from previous school friends at a mixed dance.

* The writer found ample evidence of the complexity of some of these unions
when trying to sort out parentages in connection with anthropometric data. There
are, of course, “bawdy” as well as careless households to be considered.

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NEGROES IN BRITAIN

In short, not only is the colour line acute in terms of relations
between the sexes, but metaphorically speaking, there is little,
if any, marginal ground in which free social intercourse can take
place. There is added difficulty, too, in the process of social
selection whereby, particularly for a younger coloured man,
following conventional racial patterns, the “conquest” of a white
woman is something which carries a certain amount of prestige,
and is therefore an increased incentive in that direction.

(c) General Social Behaviour. A very great deal of the actual
“social behaviour” itself appears to take place in the streets.
The occupation of the greater proportion of the menfolk, which
takes them away from their homes for lengthy periods, is also
responsible for leaving them, married and single alike, more or
less at leisure for varying intervals between voyages. This,
in view of the segregation of the community, and more particu-
larly of the very limited facilities for recreation in the district,
means that almost their whole time is spent in the immediate
neighbourhood and in what few diversions are available there. ^
Of these the most persistent is the game known in America as
“crap-shooting”, or “shooting the dice”.

(d) Gambling. Though this is the most prominent form of
recreation observed, it would be a mistake to assume that it is
universally popular. Rather, it is supported and carried on by
a more or less regular school of “professionals”, as they might be
called. The pitch always occupies the same spot on a convenient
pavement in one of the longer streets. At most times of the day
and every day until it is too dark for the numbers on the dice to
be seen, there are usually two such pitches in operation,
surrounded by a small crowd of onlookers or intending
participants, its size varying with the weather and the time of the
week. The week-end is the time of greatest interest, largely
because on Fridays the men draw their weekly Pool money. ^

^ Comment on this point has already been made (p. 43). Speaking about the
cricket team which the coloured men used to run, one of the West Indians pointed
out that they had to go right out of the district to get a game, and then they were
immediately met with the cry, “Look at the black men playing cricket!” It should be
said that since the investigation was carried out, the establishment of a Colonial
Hostel in Bute Street by the Colonial Office has brought about some alleviation of the
difficulty over amenities.

* During the Second World war all merchant seamen while not actually on
articles formed part of a general “Pool” from which they were taken into employment
according to the needs of Government service. During this time they were paid
Pool wages, e.g., fireman, £3 8s. 5d. per week; trimmer, £3 6s. per week, and so on.

sociology: life and labour 141

Amounts wagered vary very much, from sixpence to, it is said,
as much as £ 20 : so far as was seen, however, they rarely amounted
to more than £6 at a time. The procedure is for the player to
call out the stake for which he is prepared to play, or to pitch it
on to the pavement, and when his challenge has been taken up
by the arrival of a similar amount beside his own, to throw his
own two dice from the road side of the pavement towards the
wall.^ The players are mostly of the younger set, and their
activities are looked upon with varying degrees of disapproval
by a large number of the community; but the general reaction is
one of amused or cynical tolerance. Children are not encouraged
to look on at this performance — possibly because it is outside
their status — and are prohibited from imitating it in the street,
but they occasionally do so in play. The main communal objec-
tion to this dicing appears to be the occasional scuffles to which
it gives rise, and the unwelcome attention which the scene of the
arena receives from the Police, who are in the habit of making
occasional raids on the players; but as there is an efficient alarm
system in operation, they have usually broken up and dispersed
before the agents of the law can appear round the nearest corner.
In their attempt to obtain actual identification, the Police are
said to have developed the technique of the surprise attack,
swinging round the corners suddenly in a car or arriving with
blackened faces. ^

Other and more general diversions are betting on dogs and
horses, and some interest in football pools. There are at least
two ostensible betting houses, and others possibly exist; and on
Saturday afternoons there is a steady flow of both male and female

^ The dice are thrown with a characteristic movement of the hand and jerk of the
wrist, something like the action of the bowler on the green, and simultaneously the
thumb is flicked with an audible click against the side of the index finger, the thrower
usually interjecting some cry of encouragement. Seven is a winning total, but if a
ten is thrown, another ten must be obtained before the player can score a winning
number. Various combinations on the same theme may be substituted. It does not
appear to spoil the throw if in the course of their run the dice hit against an interven-
ing object.

* Two solutions of this “social problem” were suggested to the writer by members
of the community; (a) that much higher fines should be imposed on the culprits when
caught, the usual 5/-- fine being inadequate; and (b) that the players should rent a
room where “they could gamble away to their heart’s content”. The speaker who
made the second suggestion mentioned, however, that he thought the players would
be too mean to pay the rent. Another objected to this suggestion on the grounds that
they had often tried to get rooms, but the difficulty about a registered club was that
it could be entered at any time by the police whom (unlike other strata of society in
similar cases) “they hadn’t got the means of squaring”.

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punters into and out of the private houses concerned. The
practice of betting seems to be carried on irrespective of sex or
age, and although it is impossible to state the average size of bet,
it seems likely that a large proportion of the wagers fall into the
I /- category. There is no dog track within the area, but it is
understood that there is an attendance of devotees from the
district at the Craven Arms track, and stories, possibly exagger-
ated, are told of the winning and losing of several hundreds of
pounds in a single evening. It is as well to qualify doubt concern-
ing these, because, socially at any rate, the gambling complex
is an important factor, and the size of the amounts which
are reputed to change hands should not be lightly discounted.
An unmarried seaman might return to the district, or arrive in
Bute Street, after being paid off, with ^^50 or more in his pocket,
and might spend the bulk of the sum in this way. It is also
possible that the larger amounts circulate not unevenly within a
certain set. The Somalis, in particular, have a strong reputation
for gambling, and are also reputed to be very generous with
their winnings. ^ There are, however, other ways of disposing of
money made in this way, A Gambian bought a motor car with
his week’s winnings at dice, and possibly a fair amount finds its
way into the pockets of the brewers, or is diverted into less socially
approved channels. In general, an estimate of the effect of this
practice on the family or personal budget would make interest-
ing reading, as it would also in other strata of society.

^ There are several possible explanations of this kind of “generosity**. An African
asked vs^hat he did when he won a lot of money, said that he gave it away to his
friends, and agreed that, in effect, besides pleasing them, he thus made a form of
investment against a “rainy day**. It is possible also that some of the Somalis who arc
unused to handling large sums of European money do not appreciate its relative
value, and that the remark that “money means nothing to them** is in a sense quite
true. The suggestion is enhanced by their frugal way of living. It is said that “they
take little food beside soup**.

A more general point in reference to the gambling, perhaps not immediately
obvious, is the likelihood of its ranking as an institution among many of the non-
Europeans. It is understood that in some Asiatic-owned restaurants, pieces are
supplied as a matter of course after the meal, and that the gaming serves as a kind of
mental exercise and psychological stimulus (rather like bridge in Europe), the money
itself simply providing the means by which it is carried on. It has to be remembered
that the cultural attitude in the West towards money has about it something almost
sacred. Consequently, to the ordinary Western observer there is a strong element of
sacrilege in the treatment of large sums of money without appropriate care and
respect.

* It is doubtful if social surveys in general make nearly enough allowance for the
economic influence of this factor. In February, 1936, the Economist estimated that
the total national expenditure on gambling was approximately ;C400 millions per
year, a figure which, it is reasonable to suggest, has considerably increased rather

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143

(e) Clubs and the Cinema. Among the younger members
and the women, film-going is by far the most popular form of
entertainment, but the local church young men’s clubs are fairly
well attended on weekday evenings. At one of these meeting
places, to which several visits were paid, there were usually
some twenty to thirty boys and young men aged from twelve
to twenty playing table billiards and ping-pong. The minister
in question has tried hard to increase interest in this respect, and
has in some measure succeeded. ^ The girls have Guide companies,
and there is also a company of the Girls’ Life Brigade, which
seems at various times to have proved fairly popular. The older
women members of this church also meet once a week under the
chairmanship of the minister’s wife, and hold tea-parties, dis-
cussions, etc., on the usual church lines. Though by no means
universally subscribed to, these associations and gatherings seem
to keep going a certain amount of social life. The same might
just about be said of the men’s club attached to the same church.
At two or three visits paid by the writer, there was a small
attendance of the older members of the church, mostly missionary-
converted West Indians and West Africans. The club in question
is non-sectarian, and the minister prides himself on his liberal
attitude towards Islam, in the obvious hope of attracting Moslems
into his assembly. As in the case of the boys’ club (see note
below), it is possible that a more imaginative programme, such
as the introduction of educated coloured speakers and discussions
on colonial topics, would infuse some dynamic into the proceed-
ings. At one time, this particular church ran a very well patron-

than decreased in subsequent years. In terms of the total adult population of the
kingdom this sum averages out at some £15 per adult, and this places the Loudoun
Square situation in a more adequate perspective.

^ The club in question is carried on largely with the aid of voluntary adult helpers,
mostly living in other districts. There is a small subscription of a penny or a few
pence per week for the older boys. The minister has tried to run it on “parliament”
lines, but it seems very doubtful if his more “cultural” and educational attempts
make much headway. At one committee meeting which the writer attended, the
question of play readings came up, but the minister’s suggestion of a Shakespearean
play damped down the lukewarm interest aroused. Most of the proposals coming
from the boys themselves were for some form of recreational activity — gymnastics
and hiking for example, and no enthusiasm was shown for counter-proposals for any
more intellectual type of exercise. The boys* other suggestions — ^for dancing and a
mixed club — were dismissed. Some effort was also made by another voluntary
helper in this club, a schoolmaster, to provide coaching in Vocational subjects.
One or two of the boys confided to the writer that they enjoyed discussions, and
attended meetings of the men’s clubs for that reason. The whole subject of the
running of a boys’ or young men’s club is a very complicated one, and its discussion
is outside the scope of this work.

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NEGROES IN BRITAIN

ized cinema show. The young girls are likely to attend up-town
cinemas at least twice if not three times a week, and sometimes
even more often, ^

(f) Drinking and Dancing. The extent of the drinking habits of
the community is difficult to estimate, though the Moslems form
an exception in this respect. In public, however, the practice
appears to be of fairly moderate extent, is carried on by both
sexes more in terms of regular cliques than generally, and pro-
duces no signs of excess within the community-area itself. In
Bute Street an occasional drunken woman can be seen even
in the daytime. Beer is the most common drink, sweet wines
are popular, and rum is favoured as an occasional beverage by the
Negro seamen, but its high price makes it somewhat prohibitive.
Another popular beverage is “near” or hop beer, which is sold
in Bute Street caf^ even after hours at considerably enhanced
prices, as is diluted whisky. In general, drink and drinking habits
are much more a Bute Street matter, as, judging from both
reports and appearances, alcohol is often definitely eschewed
in Loudoun Square homes. This is particularly the case amongst
those members of the community who are under the influence of
the church, and amongst some, at least, of the younger people it
is regarded with a certain amount of self-conscious diffidence,
possibly on account of the known aphrodisiac qualities of certain
kinds of drink.

In some cases a somewhat similar attitude seems to be adopted
towards dancing, perhaps for a like reason, although there is no
doubt of its popularity among the younger people. As we have
mentioned, however, there is a marked absence of facilities for
it in the district, and the Sons of Africa, who used to hold period-
ical “hops”, were obliged to take a hall in the adjacent district
of Grangetown for the purpose. The Anglo-Catholic church holds

^ Walking down Bute Street towards the community area about 6 o’clock in the
evening one meets the cinema-bound exodus. One coloured girl confided to the writer
that she went to the cinema every evening in the week if she could manage it, and
attended a band concert on Sundays. Cinema-going seems as popular in South
Wales as anywhere else in Britain. In a sample of employed and unemployed young
men and women from Cardiff, Newport and Pont)^ridd, A. J. Lush found that next
to “walking about”, the cinema was their principal form of leisure-time activity.
About 22 per cent, of his sample were in the habit of visiting it at least twice a week.

Contrary, perhaps, to general belief, several of the coloured girls declared,
genuinely it seemed, that they much preferred a “gangster” or “tough” film plot to
the “sloppy** love-interest type. One child, aged 14, was quite sure that her favourite
type of film was one which showed at least one “good murder”. How far this kind of
interest may be regarded as a cultural product of the district is a matter for conjecture.

sociology: life and labour

145

an occasional dance, but the Methodist church, with which a
larger number of coloured young people are affiliated, does not
permit its hall to be used for this purpose. The reason offered
unofficially for this prohibition was the fear of certain social
consequences. The girls would slip away during the intervals and
be given alcoholic drinks by their escorts with the object of
exciting them sexually. This is a practice far from unknown at
dances in other sections of society, but it is possible that a factor
in the whole recreational situation may be the early development
of the coloured adolescents. Their more rapid physical growth
seems to be borne out by the general agreement of other
observers, and tentatively also by anthropometric observations
made by the present writer.^ It seems to be especially marked
in the case of the girls, many of whom are said to begin menstruat-
ing at the age of 10 or ii, and are apparently sexually mature
when they leave school at the age of 14/15. Their behaviour,
too, is apparently more mature than that of male youths of an
older age, who have been known to report that they strongly
object to the girls “hanging around them”. A certain precocity
in the use of paint and powder may doubtless be explained as
imitation.

While the comparatively early development of the child of
mixed blood may perhaps be explained in terms of racial differ-
ences, there is no doubt that purely cultural and psychological
consideration should first be given full weight. There is as yet
no clear evidence that the biological processes are genetically
different by reason of race,^ and many factors in the present
environment — the nature of the family life with its frequent and
rather general lack of discipline and restraint, perhaps a very
early acquaintance with the nature and implications of sex, a
continuous contact with the more romantic type of film-show, and,
perhaps most particularly, a strong and increasing sense of
frustration in every direction owing to the gradual consciousness

^ cf. K. L. Little, op. cit.

* Sec Otto Klineberg, Race Differences. “ . . .a great many factors may help to
determine the time of the first menstruation. Health and economic status certainly,
and climate and sex stimulation in all probability. Before concluding that race also
enters, we must rule out these various factors which in themselves seem to account for
all the observed differences between the various groups studied. In any case . . . the
time of the first menstruation has probably no great significance for the problem
of racial psychology” (p. 107).

Ploss and Bartels, Womany vol. i, after an equally extensive survey of the literature,
also find it impossible to arrive at any final estimate of racial differences in this respect.

6

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

146

of their own “peculiar” position, and the barrier of colour
prejudice, would all tend, through the deep harmony which
exists between mind and body, to produce physical as well as
psychological precocity.

7. The Religious Outlook

(a) The Christians. It is almost a truism to say that the type of
religious belief found in the community also reflects to a large
extent the general educational standard, and in some degree
the social aspirations of a fairly representative section of it. To
some of the older West Africans and West Indians, the Wesleyan
Methodist church makes a strong appeal: the attendance of this
group, though small, is very regular, and their devotions are
carried on with all the zest and sincerity of the convert of the
mission type. In this church, the attendance is divided about
equaUy between the sexes, the womenfolk being in the main the
wives of the men concerned. Few young people appear to attend,
but one or two coloured women sing in the choir. The service
is conducted on orthodox Methodist lines, and although an
occasional vocal assent comes from the congregation in the course
of the minister’s address, there is nothing in their mannerisms
or in the nature of the service itself, apart from the weekly singing
of “For those in peril on the sea”, to mark it off from any other
church of this sect. The minister seems to frame his sermons
mainly in the style of the “manly appeal”. The same church
seems to be used also for the majority of the coloured weddings
which take place in the district; while the minister’s readiness to
bury coloured persons, even when not regular attendants at his
church, seems to have neutralized a certain amount of incipient
criticism of him in other ways. Such events, particularly weddings,
create a fair amount of interest and excitement among the
womenfolk; the male attitude is relatively apathetic. They are
also the occasion for a certain amount of conspicuous economic
consumption, which undoubtedly is vastly out of proportion to
the income of most of the parties concerned. As the following
report indicates, the elaborate emulation of middle-class
standards in this respect is a further illustration of the importance
to certain sections of the community of white bourgeois behaviour.

sociology: life and labour 147

“When I arrived at the church at 2 o’clock a large crowd of women, white
and coloured, holding their babies, was standing outside. A number of
children, boys and girls, were whiling away the time by chasing each other
up the stone steps which lead to the porch. Ten minutes later, the church
door was opened by the caretaker, who took the opportunity to shoo away a
bunch of 6-year-olds who were yelling at the tops of their voices, and to kick
off a mongrel dog. 2.15 saw the arrival of the groom (coloured, aged about 21)
and the best man (white, about the same age) . These were dropped along with
two ushers, one white and one coloured, from a hired motor car. The car
drove away, and returned presently with another hired car and two private
cars, from which a number of guests descended. The hired cars drove off
again, and returned five more times with further guests whom they had appa-
rently picked up at their homes. The guests were met at the door of the church
by the ushers, who escorted them to their seats, and also fulfilled the no less
important function of expelling numerous small children from the church
and generally restraining the curiosity of the crowd. The guests, incidentally,
were all quite well dressed. The arrival of the bridesmaids was the next event.
There were six. Two small girls dressed in violet, two larger ones in green,
two grown up people in blue (rather nice shining silk). They were all coloured
people. The bride then arrived with her step-father (a West Indian). She was a
coloured girl about 22, rather pretty, and wore white with a good veil. She
was greeted with confetti from the crowd outside, and the congregation rose
to its feet. It numbered some sixty persons. There were about twenty in
each party, about half of them coloured, and mostly women, and some
twenty to thirty people in addition to the bridal party. The ceremony then
proceeded, aided by a choir, apparently specially enlisted, as it was mainly
composed of coloured members. After the service the bridal party and guests
were re-transported by the cars, whilst the crowd, having scattered confetti
indiscriminately over all emerging from the church, waited patiently to see
the last guest depart. ^

Compared with the Anglo-Catholic establishment (a parish
church) at the other end of the district, the Methodist Mission
appears to be relatively popular amongst the coloured com-
munity. Altogether, however, it cannot be said that either
church plays a very large part in the religious affairs of the
community. ^

^ Document recorded by Mrs. Little.

Apparently there is some variety in the “correct” style of behaviour on these
occasions. At another wedding attended, the coloured bridegroom, a young man of
about 20, chewed gum solidly throughout the ceremony. The men usually wear
dark suits, but the women are dressed in bright colours, and shiny silk frocks and silk
hats are much in favour. It is necessary to add, of course, that aesthetically
the coloured girls are able to “carry off” a brilliant shade in a way that would be
impossible for white women.

^ The lack of religious contact is not altogether surprising when the matter is
considered in a wider perspective. On one occasion the speaker delivering the even-
ing’s address spoke of missionaries returning from Africa who claimed to be able to
distinguish “the converted from the heathen by the light in the eyes” of the former.
In reference to a visiting minister, who had preached, a Sierra Leonian complained
to the writer that the man, a returned missionary, was going round the town telling
people that the inhabitants of Sierra Leone “were in the habit of eating each other”.

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(b) African Customs. Apart from the more conventional
practices of Christianity, a number of more or less indigenous
African customs, such as the holding of wakes after funerals, and
even some drumming are carried out.^ A Fante man reported
that a small celebration of an Adae festival had been held “out
in the country” on one occasion when a Gold Coast stool holder
visited the district; the party, consisting of men and women, had
taken food and wine out with them and dancing took place.
The informant mentioned, however, that it was easier to keep up
such customs in Liverpool, where there is a large colony of Gold
Coast people and palm wine is available." On a more recent
occasion a wake was held over the coffin of a dead man in one of
the houses of the district. The men and women friends of the
deceased occupied separate rooms, and there was food and drink,
singing and speech-making.^ In some cases, it is possible
that a certain interest in the occult is mingled with what
on the surface might be construed as a purely materialistic
outlook, although this would probably be strenuously denied
by those who are most proud of their European education.
One case of sorcery amongst the Arab community was re-
ported. ^

^ In conversation with one or two of the older West Africans it was a little difficult
to decide whether they were referring to the performance of certain ceremonies in
West Africa or in Cardiff. One man mentioned the custom of calling for the bride
with a band; also the practice of the Africans of holding their “own” funeral and
wedding ceremonies after the service in church. He added in reference to the first
that the expense of musicians was now prohibitive. In the second case some celebra-
tion similar to the wake described above is undoubtedly held on occasions, but
whether or not it could be described as religious is another matter.

^ The Adae ceremony is a traditional and religious custom of the Akan-spcaking
peoples of the Gold Coast. Universally held throughout Ashanti-land, it used to be
observed twice in every successive period of forty-three days. It deals with the pro-
pitiation, solicitation or worship of ancestral spirits, and in the special sense it refers to
those ceremonies at which the spirits of the departed rulers of the clan are propitiated,
their names and deeds recalled, and favours and mercy solicited. Part of the ceremony
is carried out privately by the chief and his family and retinue in the stool-house, and
then the chief makes a public appearance to receive the homage of his followers. The
ceremony is that originally described by the traveller Bowdich as the Yam Festival.
For a better and more up-to-date description see R. S. Rattray’s Ashanti, chps. V.
and VI. In modern Ashanti, it is understood, the festival has much the same secular
significance as the King’s Birthday in our society.

® The man in question was the victim of a recent murder. He was discovered
lying in Bute Street with severe knife wounds in his body. See footnote (p. 106) with
reference to Mr. Justice Charles’s remarks at the subsequent murder trial.

^ The wife of an Arab ran away with another man. The husband, aggrieved at her
loss, proceeded to work magic against her, with the result that she was frightened
and eventually returned to her own family, who complained to the Police about the
matter. They, of course, said they could do nothing about it,

sociology: life and labour 149

(c) The '^Fatalists". The religious outlook of the womenfolk
is probably most variable of all. As already mentioned, there is an
attendance of white wives and relatives at the Methodist church.
Other women say that they were brought up in the Catholic
faith, but the extent to which they practise as distinct from
merely professing this code is possibly summed up in the remark
of one that she considered “personal confession” enough. In
general, among this section as among many of the men there is
a strong vein of what for want of a better word may be described
as Fatalism. It consists mainly of a body of superstitions and
superstitious explanations of personal experiences and less usual
outside phenomena, based on the principle of “what will be
will be”.^ It represents what is probably a somewhat debased
form of Christian dogma, but seems to share at the same time
the philosophical notion of acceptance which is implicit in most
widespread forms of religion. Ritualistically, it is exemplified in
various practices such as “touching wood”, avoiding ladders,
etc., which, with a minimal expenditure of intellectual and
devotional energy, secure the individual in his universe of every-
day affairs. The exceptional and the calamitous are quite
beyond the technique of the individual “fatalist”, but just as
plainly and observably they are beyond the technique of every-
one else, and so there is little point in wasting effort in endeavours
to forestall them. How far this rather vague outlook is shared
by the church-going devotees it is difficult to say. Some, at
least, attend church as a piece of social reciprocation for favours
done them — the procuring of a job for a daughter, for example.
Others are frankly sceptical of the minister’s harangue, but
appreciate that it is his “duty” to deliver it. ^

(d) The Moslems, Mention should be made once more of the
strong body of Islamic faith. The adherents of this creed not
only carry out their ritual and religious obligations with vastly
more fervour and enthusiasm than the rest of the community, but
are correspondingly surer both of themselves and their own
way of life. The principal injunctions of Islam are fulfilled

^ One typical remark by a white housewife when asked if she had sought shelter
during the air raids was: “I stayed here: I say if it’s coming to you, it will.”

* In comment on one of the minister’s “parables” illustrating the conversion to
temperance of a person given strongly to alcohol, one of the West Africans said frankly
that he did not believe the story: no one who was so fond of drink as all that would be
persuaded to give it up so quickly.

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

150

assiduously, and the various prohibitions ^ enjoined by the Prophet
are on the whole rigorously observed, as are Ramadan and other
fasts and festivals,^ in celebrating which Arab dress is worn by
most of the Arabs. This constant display of devotion is regarded
by the rest of the community with a certain amount of respect
and even a little admiration. There is a feeling that it gives
“tone” to the district. Not unnaturally perhaps, the religious
confidence of the Moslems is charged with a considerable degree
of hauteur towards whatever professions other members of the
community make, in respect not only of the lack of communal
sense amongst the latter, but of their ritualistic laxity. The
Moslem comments, in particular, on the factionalism amongst
the Negroes. He, the Moslem, “prepares himself” by bathing;^
“gives himself to God”, etc., and he comments sarcastically
on the inability of the Christian to do either. Some of the younger
followers of the Prophet, however, are to be suspected of less
positive and whole-hearted adherence.^

^ One explanation offered for one of the best known of these prohibitions, the
abstention from pork, provides an interesting anthropological slant. In the course
of his “mission**, Jesus called one day on a family which included several children,
to whom he spoke. The parents did not care for his proselytising, and the next time
Jesus came they shut the children away in a room so that he should not have the
opportunity of approaching them. Jesus asked for the children, however, and
eventually inquired what was in that particular room. The parents replied that there
was nothing there except some pigs. Jesus replied “Yes, there are pigs in there right
enough**. When the door was opened a number of little pigs did indeed run out in
place of the children. And so pigs are really human beings, and cannot be eaten.

* The sheikh wears Arab dress every day, and with his beard and turban presents
a very patriarchal appearance. The obligations of fasting are met with a degree of
elasticity. If a man is engaged on any kind of physical work he is not expected to
make more than a token abstention. On the other hand persons more lightly employed
are not permitted to take food from sunrise to sunset. On the approach of Ramadan,
the Arab members of the A.R.P. post were careful to have their hours of duty arranged
to cover the night watches. At other times, if one entered the Post at sundown one
would discover the Arab warden kneeling on his mat in prayer.

® One of the writer’s West African informants announced one day that he had
become a Moslem. He had expressed great admiration for the Moslems on several
occasions in the past, and now proudly escorted the writer over the Mosque, pointing
out, in particular, the bathing arrangements. The reason he gave for his change of
faith was that he had been disgusted by the non-appearance of the Roman Catholic
priest at the funeral of his landlady. But as, several times previously, he had ex-
pressed his difficulty in obtaining a good bath anywhere in the district, it is just
possible that the Moslems* bath-house had some relation to his conversion. On the
other hand the man in question, a very sociable type, seemed to have a particular
interest in joining societies and clubs. He is a member of various organizations not
only in Cardiff but in other parts of the world.

^ One young Moslem who had recently been conscripted into the Army and was
giving up Islam confessed that he was glad to get rid of all “that old stuff**.

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151

8. Social Training and Education

Of all the inhabitants of the district the children are the most
picturesque. Wonderfully variegated in the colour of their skin
and in texture of hair, they immediately catch the eye of the
visitor, and have provoked lyrical descriptions from novelists
and journalists alike. The children, coloured and white, attend
the same schools, the respective representation varying according
to different localities of the area. In the South Church Street
council school and St. Mary’s school, which are both close to
Loudoun Square, there appear to be something like eight coloured
for every two white. Closer to the Pier Head, in Eleanor Street,
the coloured children are in a proportion of less than one in
three. There is practically no difficulty whatsoever regarding
their ability to mix freely in all these cases. They laugh and play
their games together with the greatest freedom from racial
consciousness. Entering the playground during an interval, one
sees an Arab and a Negro child busily engaged in swinging some
undoubted representative of the “Nordic” race to and fro by his
legs. In the Loudoun Square play park the same freedom is seen.
Children of all colours and shades chase and push each other
about without the least regard to the inhibitions which trouble
their elders. The same disregard of race, too, is found among
children of school-leaving age, and so far as their relations in
Loudoun Square are concerned, it probably lasts until adolescence
in the physical sense is completed. Among many of the white
boys who have been reared in the district it is possible that colour
prejudice never develops, but matters are different with some of
the girls, who subsequently display all its symptoms in regard
to their erstwhile school friends. The reason for this is mainly
a matter of social inculcation — they marry white men and move
in circles where even acquaintanceship with a coloured person is
a mark of inferior social status. In general, however, at least
during their childhood, the coloured young people are un-self-
conscious to a considerable degree. “They are gay and witty,
and often popular at school. They are particularly good at
singing and dancing, and love bright colours.”

(a) Psychological Factors in the Home. These features of un-self-
consciousness and precocity often go hand in hand with “problem

NEGROES IN UKIIAIN

*52

behaviour” and an absence of restraint. In view of the situation
at home in a number of cases, this is not surprising, if, as psycho-
logists indicate, the emotional development of children is pro-
foundly affected by the relations existing between husband and
wife, not to mention the general adult behaviour around them.

A factor which does not seem to have been studied in
sufficient detail is that which arises directly from the sheer limita-
tion of physical space in overcrowded homes and seems to lead
to a lessening of social and psychological distance between the
individuals concerned. It may signify, in effect, very often that
the barriers of respect and obedience which in other sections of
society separate the older from the younger age-groups either
do not grow up or are broken down. It may mean, also, the
development of a certain ambivalence in regard to the status of
the child itself. A youngster of lo or ii is called upon in one
situation to fulfil the role of and to behave like an adult: at another
moment it is allowed to be no more than its “rightful” age. For
example, such a child may be attending school in the morning,
and on its return may have to assume virtually all the responsi-
bilities of a bed-ridden mother in catering and cooking meals
for the household, along with the entire supervision of a younger
brother or sister. It is as if the change from childhood to woman-
hood were effected in the short space of time which it takes to
move from the school class-room to the kitchen-range. What the
more subtle effects of this dichotomy of role are on the psychology
of a developing child it would be difficult to say, but overtly
if often seems to give rise to the type of behaviour which an
outside observer is apt to classify as unreliable or irresponsible,
so that he may look upon as traits of temperament what are
largely inadequate processes of adaptation. The child or young
person concerned is even more oblivious to the implications of the
position: habits of adjustment have been learned at so early an
age that by the time he or she is old enough to speculate on any
given situation he is already accustomed to reacting appropriately
and automatically to it.

The case of the coloured child in this respect is complicated
still further by social attitudes towards its parents. The racial
position of, say, a Negro father, and in some cases the more or less
“professional” life of the mother seem to afford an equally good
illustration of problem situations to which the child may react in

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153

several different ways. He may, for example, espouse the cause
of the father and by a process of association develop an attitude
of antagonism against all those (usually white people) whom he
holds responsible for derogatory attitudes towards coloured
people. Or he may come substantially to accept white values and
thus learn to regard his father with good-humoured contempt.^
In effect, through the dichotomy of racial attitudes he has the
psychological choice of identifying himself with either party —
with father or with mother. In any case, there is most probably
a weakening in the quality of conventional respect given to both
parents; on the one hand, because white attitudes can never
be totally ignored, and on the other because the emotion of
pity, which is an inevitable result of such paternal association,
is likely to lead to an attitude of superiority towards the object
pitied. For particularly sensitive individuals the unconscious
conflict between loyalty to father and to mother may be irresolv-
able. When a psychological issue or conflict is particularly
intense, the only “safe” course from the point of view of mental
equanimity is entirely to disregard it; in other words, in the case
in point, deliberately to repress previous emotional fixations on
either parent. The habit of filial “neutrality”, thus uncon-
sciously and gradually acquired, may lead in turn to a habit of
detachment in other respects, and in particular to a neglect of any
arduous emotional as well as intellectual problems.

(b) The Problem of ’’^Control”. Situations of this kind are
worth some attention because the main complaint in the district
regarding the children is that they run quite wild. Members of
the community as well as outside observers say that the parents
have no control over their children, and some of the parents
themselves admit this and call upon the school-teachers for advice
and help. To appreciate their difficulty the general environ-
mental circumstances as well as the psychological factors
mentioned above have to be borne in mind. What is of more

^ A rather striking example of this kind occurred in the case of a child who had a
lighter-skinned father and a darker-skinned mother, A “well-off” white person
interested himself in the boy, aged about twelve, and adopted him temporarily in
his home. The war came, the white patron was called away, and the child was sent
back to his parents’ home. He soon started to stay away for long periods, and event-
ually, after an absence of some days, was found by the police at the house of some white
friends of his previous sponsor. He had explained to them that during his absence
his mother had died, and his father was now living with a “black housekeeper”.
Further evidence of this kind of response to “prestige” adds extra point to this hypo-
thesis.

6 ^

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

154

significance than the actual poverty of many of these homes
is the fact that the father not only possesses a rather inadequate
knowledge of English and cultural habits somewhat different
from English ones, but is barely alive to the implications and type
of social behaviour customary in our society. “Control” in the
present sense means in the last analysis that the child is in the
habit of being influenced by persons older than himself. Such a
habit is gradually acquired rather than deliberately inculcated,
and its acquisition in the home sets the ultimate seal on the whole
of the child’s social orientation. When, however, situations are
never consistently or sufficiently defined for the growing in-
dividual, when he or she is required to act in a number of diverse
ways, and when, moreover, a pattern of conflicting loyalties
and resentments is set up, it is not difficult to see how hard it is
for a routine of obedience to be established. Correlatively it can
be appreciated how in the absence of more or less set norms of
rational behaviour the child comes to act “irrationally”, and how
when personal obligations are customarily construed as a matter
of impulse rather than premeditation, the reciprocation normal
to ordinary social intercourse takes place only sporadically.^

Parents in the community at the very best are but partially
alive to the significance of these factors, and those who are
conscientious conclude that “good” behaviour is something
which can virtually be “magicked” into their offspring in the
schoolroom in the same way as reading and arithmetic. The
outside observer sees only the more overt evidence, and in seeing
it forgets that he is applying the codes and notions of conduct
appropriate to the middle class or the upper working class to
quite another section of society. ^ In any case he sees only second-
ary phenomena. In many cases hours of meals are irregular,

^ cf. Hueffer, op, cit., pp. 193-97.

“It was in the matter of discipline that the mothers of Romwell showed them-
selves least intelligent. Themselves of a generation which, as a natural result of the
war, suffered an instinctive revulsion against any overt act of compulsion . . . not
only was home discipline lax; attempts to supplement it from without were fiercely
resented. At home the child was bewildered by consistent inconsistency, soundly
smacked at one moment for what it might be caressed for doing the moment after;
supported against any aggression from without while subjected to capricious in-
justice, according to the parent’s state of temper, from within. In the schools, dis-
cipline was no less difficult of enforcement. Did a teacher punish a child for some
intolerable offence, the odds were that he or she would shortly be confronted by a
screaming virago or, as was worse in its effect upon their after-careers, haled before
a magistrate on a charge of aggravated assault.”

•An important warning is issued by the authors of Children of Bondage; The Per-

sociology: life and labour

155

in some cases they may not be served at all; children may never
reach school on some mornings owing to the more pressing
nature of some domestic business. This latter instance applies
more usually to the exigencies of boarding- or lodging-house
keeping, where various official returns have to be completed,
and where the child as the only literate member of the household
is expected to cope with the matter. Judging, however, from the
appearance of the younger children, it would seem that they are
not only fairly robust, but well looked after in both the physical
and material senses, since in clothing and equipment they com-
pared by no means unfavourably with children in another, and
possibly more prosperous, working-class district. Again, although
the mothers are said to lose interest in their offspring after they
have reached the age of 6 or 7, there is no doubt that the children
are treated very kindly by both parents in the ordinary way, and
unless the mother happens to have a fit of “temperament”,^
their life is probably a very happy one. It is evident that they
display considerable vitality in their long hours of communal
play, and often extreme restlessness during school hours, though
this again may be a function of home conditions. ^

(c) The Background 0/ Knowledge. The implications of these
group patterns of behaviour are important not only over the
question of individual discipline but when the more formal
process of education arises. It is now realized that successful
teaching in school, as elsewhere, depends as much upon conditions
outside, and a receptive frame of mind on the part of the scholar
or student, as upon any other factor, including school equipment
and the skill of the instructor. The accomplishment of these in
elementary schools in general, and in the Cardiff coloured
quarter in particular, is rendered difficult not only by old-

sonality Development of Negro Youth in the Urban South (Washington, D.G., 1940).
They point out that what the middle-class observer is inclined very often to put down as
deficiencies in social training are no more than the behaviour traits of “lower-class”
society, and should be assessed in that light rather than as a psychological problem.

^ By report (probably valid) various kinds of punishment include placing a
child’s hand on a red-hot stove; locking up in a dark cellar for many hours; and
belabouring a child’s head with a broom-handle. It seems possible that a certain
amount of mental deficiency should be held responsible for these and other drastic
methods of correction as much as mere “temperament”.

* The Police report that play is carried on in the streets until 2 a.m. on occasion.
A teacher in the Infants Department of one of the schools concerned suggested that
the great difficulty of keeping the younger children sitting on the seats provided for
them might arise from their being unaccustomed to the use of chairs in the relative
absence of such articles of furniture in the homes.

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

156

fashioned class-rooms, large classes, an overworked and (during
war-time conditions at any rate) inadequate number of experienced
teachers, but by the broad and peculiar circumstances prevailing
amongst the community itself. Here, significantly, the effect of
the interaction of young and old may be seen; for if the ability
to learn and be “educated” depends largely on the desire to do
so, it is also bound up with the educational heritage of the society
concerned.

The standard and type of education possessed by the adult
members of this community is very variable, but on the whole,
and certainly by European criteria, it is undoubtedly very low.
Few of the Arabs and Somalis, for example, are literate, and
although more or less compulsory instruction is provided in the
Koran school it cannot be said to contribute very far towards
an understanding of English letters, methods of education, or
English culture in general. Many of the Africans, and possibly
more of the West Indians, appear to have received a primary
education, mainly at Mission schools; some of them have passed
through a secondary school, and a few are self-taught. The
womenfolk appear to be no more or less literate than other
members of the social and economic class from which the majority
of them are drawn, and whose educational attainments do not
reach the writing and speaking of grammatical English. Again,
although most, if not all, the British Africans and West Indians
understand English, their speaking of it varies a great deal in
fluency and expression. ^ Similarly, although quite a number of
the Arabs understand English well enough for simple social and
commercial intercourse, even fewer of them can speak it
adequately.

(d) Lack of Educational Incentive. On top of this must be added
a number of psychological and economic factors. Most of the
households are poor enough to require economic contributions
from the children as soon as possible. Equally important are the
implications which arise from the colour complex. It has already
been mentioned that coloured juveniles obthin jobs in the
ordinary way only with the greatest difficulty. Apart from employ-
ment at sea, the boys are lucky to find work as errand boys or

^ Nevertheless, several of the African seamen are probably better equipped
linguistically for practical purposes than the average English public school boy in that
they can make themselves unaerstood in at least four languages, viz. English^ German^
French, and Spanish, not to mention one py two African languages.

sociology: life and labour 157

page boys, or in some other “blind-alley” occupation, and for the
girls the Juvenile Employment Bureau can rarely find anything
outside the “colour line”.^ Virtually the only outlet with any
prospects in this respect seems to be in entertainment, where
both male and female youngsters can sometimes secure jobs as
dancers and singers, and an occasional engagement in a film
crowd. ^ In the circumstances, it is not surprising that the rebuffs
received become part of the group experience, are communicated
to the child at an early age as group tradition, even if individual
parents have no hand in the matter, and produce in him an
apathy towards formal education which easily and quickly defeats
any personal and sometimes limited attempts which are available
to cope with the situation in the schoolroom.

To pass into a secondary school in Cardiff every child
is obliged to pass an examination which is held annually on a
competitive basis. Free places in the secondary school are
offered to the successful children of parents whose incomes fall
below a certain level, and there are also scales of aid governing
small maintenance grants and the loan of textbooks (and in the
case of one of the dockland schools, a grant of clothing also).
These grants are relatively quite small and do not by any means
offset the amount which children in a working-class home might
be expected to bring back were they in some form of employment. ^
Even so, the number of entrants from the dockland schools

^ It is reported that many juveniles will not attend the Bureau on account of the
ostracism they meet with at the hands of white juveniles (the Fletcher Report men-
tions a similar fact in respect to Liverpool) . Sometimes a coloured boy or girl is more
successful if he or she applies personally for a job, in that a face-to-face contact may
break down an employer’s stereotyped outlook on the colour question. Sometimes,
however, the bare mention of the applicant’s home address is enough to cut short any
negotiations.

* This type of employment is, of course, uncertain as well as sporadic, and in the
case of young girls it is not without its “moral” dangers, particularly if the show
concerned should break down in the course of a tour, leaving the entertainers stranded
and without resources.

® The actual secondary school fees in Cardiff are not high — in the neighbourhood
of £10 per annum, and the main difficulty over sending a child to such a school from
the point of view of working-class parents is probably maintenance. The maintenance
grants begin when the weekly income of the parents does not exceed £ 2 , los., and in
such a case full grant, i.e. £2 per annum, is made during the first year of the pupil’s
school life, followed by a slightly increasing scale for the subsequent four years.
Smaller grants are made to parents whose incomes are slightly larger than this.
It seems doubtful, however, if these allowances can offer much attraction to a house-
hold living on a low margin of subsistence. Even a child of 14 or 15 may be expected
to bring in about £20 per annum, and with all the hazards of unemployment, sick-
ness, etc., to be considered there can be no possible doubt about the greater pull of
this inducement.

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

158

and of successes gained by coloured children in recent sessions
of the Cardiff “Special Place” Examination have been negligible
when compared even with other working-class districts.^ The
fact that with working-class areas the conditions of competition
are more nearly equal, i.e. inferior educational equipment of
parents, the difficulty of studying owing to the stress and noise
of crowded living conditions, ^ etc. — means in the main, though
not entirely, that the coloured lack of advance must be put down
to an absence of initiative on the part of parents and children.

It is not difficult in terms of the sociological situation as a
whole to appreciate how this outlook and the unemployability
of the coloured juvenile come to constitute a vicious circle. In
view of the very dubious possibilities of any social and economic
return on an outlay of effort and money, which can be provided
only by considerable sacrifice on the part of all concerned, very
few parents even bother to investigate the possibilities of further
education for their children.® The young people themselves hear
only of the failure of other coloured juveniles to obtain better-
class and better-paid jobs, and conclude that they are well rid of
school as soon as possible. The circle, therefore, is broken only
very occasionally and in quite exceptional circumstances, as when,
perhaps, his schoolmaster is particularly impressed by the
intelligence and promise of a certain pupil and is able to persuade

It is doubtful if much is gained by making a direct comparison in this respect
with a middle-class school. Quite apart from the difference in economic factors, the
social conditions are likely to have a striking effect on the situation. The fact that
entry into the Cardiff secondary schools is dependent on a competitive effort means
that failure to qualify on the part of a middle-class child jeopardises not only his
own prospects, but the status of his whole family, since it will now be virtually imposs-
ible for him to enter the “white-collar** occupations, which constitute the social and
obligatory goal of members of his class. This incentive, which is not only absent from
but is sometimes frowned upon in working-class circles, is an important reason for
the relatively poor showing of the latter group.

On the subject of overcrowding and its effects in this connection, it is interesting
to note that the investigators of the Merseyside Survey found an inverse correlation
between the number of scholarship successes obtained and the social and economic
status of the district concerned in Liverpool.

® This point was borne out strikingly in the course of the writer*s proposed scheme
for advancing the education of children in the district. Most of the parents with whom
he discussed the question were entirely ignorant of the educational opportunities and
amenities in the city, and had utterly no idea of ways and means of taking advantage
of them. A few parents, of course, for one reason or another were entirely opposed
to the idea of secondary education; one woman, for example, complained that it
made the children “stand-offish**. The attitude of the Moslems in this respect is
somewhat difficult to assess. The official view is that anything which betters the young
people is to be encouraged, but individuals sometimes took the line that too much
education was bad as well as unnecessary. This form of resistance can be understood
largely in terms of religious conservatism.

sociology: life and labour

159

the child’s parents, and if necessary, the educational authorities
themselves, to enable the youngster to carry on his studies. A
number of the parents themselves, especially the Negro fathers,
are alive both to the value and the implications of a good educa-
tion, and do their utmost, often in the face of considerable
hardship and discouragement, to see that at least one of their
children obtains it. Occasionally, too, a more far-sighted or
socially ambitious parent insists on apprenticing her sons to
mechanical engineering or an allied trade. In the great majority
of cases, however, particularly with the girls, the multiple factors
of economic disability, prejudice, apathy, and ilhteracy transcend
any likelihood of positive action of this kind, and leave the child
of mixed blood where his racial position has landed him — almost
as a piece of social and economic flotsam and jetsam on English
society.

(e) The Social Results. In view of all these circumstances,
therefore, it is not surprising that of all the community the “mixed
bloods” should be most alive to the colour implication. Their
position in Loudoun Square is less indeterminate than in the
world outside, but in degree rather than kind. They lack on
the one hand the cultural and national pride upon which many
of their fathers at the worst can fall back, and on the other they
fail to gain any compensatory ties in the society of the land in
which they were born. ^ Above all, often they either lack or are
little disposed to what ultimately is their main hope of achieving
adaptation to the greater society — an understanding or an
analysis of their own relation to it. In such a context it is not
surprising that many of their actions are negative rather than
positive; that their behaviour is accounted unreliable; and that
their characters sometimes appear shiftless. It is a further example
of the closed circle: it is not worth their aspiring to anything,
because there is nothing for them to aspire to, and (in a sense)
there is nothing for them to aspire to because they will not make
the effort of aspiration.^ The personality traits of the hybrid

^ One significant exception to this rule was found in a “mixed blood*’ who had been
born in West Africa of a white father. He spoke of West Africa as “home”.

2 cf. R. R. Moton {op. cit., pp. 201—2), who remarks in reference to racial dis-
crimination in the U.S.:

“One subtle and serious result of this condition is that Negro youths are deprived
of many of the incentives that stimulate ambition. In the majority of places where
Negroes serve, there is no such thing as a beginning at the bottom and working to the
top.”

l60 NEGROES IN BRITAIN

have been effectively described by Stonequist and other writers
in terms of the “marginal man”, and need no further recapitu-
lation here.

But to take the situation of this community to its logical
conclusion, it is by no means the children of mixed blood alone
whose position in this respect is marginal. With the possible
exception of the Moslems, all the segments are seeking in some
direction, some less consciously than others, assimilation in the
white greater society in which so far they have set foot only
geographically. This is particularly true of the Negroes of both
the Afro-West-Indian and “Political” segments, and accounts
perhaps for a great deal of their mutual jealousy and self-con-
scious assertion of place and position. The “Mixed Bloods” as a
whole tend to solve their problem largely by withdrawing from it,
but among the former groups and even the womenfolk the issue is
appreciated, even if rather dimly, in far more positive terms.
Both the militant counter-prejudice of some of the Negroes, and
the efforts to emulate English middle-class ways on the part of
others, are attempts in the same direction. The men accom-
modate^ themselves to white society in a variety of ways — by
joining local associations and organizations such as the Com-

^ See R. E. Park, E. B. Reuter, and E. V. Stonequist. The latter in his Marginal
Man (Scribner’s) writes:

“The hypersensitivity of the marginal man has been repeatedly noted. This trait
is related to the exaggerated self-consciousness developed by continually looking at
himself through the eyes of others. It may result in a tendency to find malice and
discrimination where none was intended. By brooding over his situation and by
repeatedly rehearsing past experiences in his imagination a distorted view of the world
is built up. Having this conception of the world in his mind he is more likely to pro-
voke antagonism and prejudice against himself. His own attitude evokes the responses
which he dislikes. . . .

“Or it may lead to withdrawal which prevents the individual from having experi-
ences which might change his attitude and give him more self-confidence. . . . Out
of the inferiority complex emerge various compensatory reactions. These differ
greatly with the particular individual. Excessive egocentricism is present but in
relatively few cases — and even in these it may antedate the crisis experience. The
desire to “rationalize” is evident with some. The person of weaker character finds his
race or nationality a convenient scape-goat; failure through personal defect is attrib-
uted to the discrimination of race prejudice. Correct diagnosis, however, is difficult,
since prejudice is frequent enough to make the individual’s plaint a fair one.”

* In some cases accommodation is very whole-hearted and occasionally successful.
It may consist in a denial of colour-bar practices; or may blame coloured individuals
themselves for provoking trouble. One or two instances were related to the writer
of coloured young men starting trouble in the town on their own account, and in-
correctly blaming it on the use by the other party of some racial epithet, such as
“dirty nigger”. On one occasion, too, a West African, who was walking along a path
with the writer, noted a very obviously drunken Scandinavian near by and commented
in deep dis^t — “These foreigners!”

sociology: life and labour

i6i

munist Party, the Buffaloes, etc., by permitting white membership
of their own organizations, by deprecating racial assertiveness
among their own members, and by accepting on occasion and
even seeking white collaboration. Among the women-folk such
adjustments are impossible except in specific instances, but their
appreciation of the attitudes of the world outside is no less acute
than that of their menfolk. It has the concomitant effect of
producing in them an obvious and well-marked sense of com-
munity-loyalty, which, even if superficial, affords some degree
of compensation.^

9. Summary and Conclusions

The main points which appear to arise out of this survey
are as follows. In the Bute Town or Docks area of Cardiff, of
which Loudoun Square is the focal point, there is a mixed
coloured and white community in the proportions of perhaps
rather more than four coloured persons to one white. The basis
of this community is the coloured seaman and white housewife,
and the main racial elements represented are Negroid and Arab.
The community has been in existence in varying size since the
end of the last century, but did not reach significant proportions
until the time of the First World war. Since then it has become
firmly established, and has now been in existence long enough
to produce a second generation of adult age and child-bearing
potentialities. The community is segregated with some consider-
able degree of rigidity from the rest of the city in the geographical,
social and psychological senses; in the last respect the existence
of strong patterns of colour prejudice among residents of the
town is the main causal factor. In concrete terms, this prejudice
appears to have been instrumental in shaping the sociology of the
community to no small extent. In regard to marriage and
ordinary social intercourse with the opposite sex the coloured
seamen have so far been virtually limited to women of the poorest
strata of society, and often of the class of professional prostitutes.
Although in more recent years a first generation of coloured
girls has become of marriageable age, this constitutes only a

^ For example, one of the white women reported that she had lost her last factory
job through contesting (literally and physically) a remark derogatory of the district^

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

162

partial alleviation of the domestic situation, since, apart from
numbers, their domestic abilities cannot be rated very highly.
The community suffers as much from this general domestic
and social instability as from any other factor, and these con-
tribute to its general poverty and ineffectiveness as much as any
non-sociological consideration, such as unemployment in a
shipping depression, differential rates of relief, and the part-
economic, part-racial competition of white seamen. To these
factors must also be added the high cost of living in the district —
itself a function of the very high rents — and the limitation of
educational and vocational opportunities for the coloured
juveniles and children.

These factors, taken in conjunction with the overt mani-
festations of colour bar in the city, seem to have produced a
reaction which in emotional terms is in some cases even stronger
than the outside attitudes of prejudice. The same reaction
seems, in turn, to bring about on occasion some very definite
sense of group consciousness and group responsibility; since
under any strong and overt manifestation of colour bar, differ-
ences of cultural and racial background tend to become very
largely submerged, and for the time being forgotten. It is
almost entirely through this type of' event that the community
can be spoken of as sharing a common body of experience, for
it will be plain from what has preceded that it is as yet too diverse
in terms of sect, race, language and culture to be able to lay claim
to any continuous and marked communal body of interest.
Nevertheless, the last point requires some qualification, since
among the large section of African origin there is at least one
organization at work with, it appears, a fair degree of cohesive
force. The implications of this movement, though nominally
social, must realize themselves in political form before they can
become effective, and as yet they do not engage the interests of
the womenfolk to any great degree. The Moslems on the whole
are apathetic to it, and the movement is still under the suspicion
of the more prominent members of the rival party.

In present circumstances, the community may be expected
to continue more or less in its present form, and perhaps even to
grow in numbers. The solution to its difficulties lies in greatly
increased absorption in the city’s life and activities. This calls
not only for greater racial tolerance and equal opportunities of

sociology: life and labour

163

employment and social intercourse, but for a general “levelling
up” of educational and cultural standards. The latter is a sine
qua non. On the other hand, the community may be expected to
undergo further vagaries of economic hardship if the following
conditions continue to obtain after the Second World war:

( 1 ) Strong colour bar patterns in Cardiff and elsewhere with the possibility
of their resumption also in the shipping industry in particular, if any
depression should occur.

(2) The presence of an increasing number of coloured juveniles, more
particularly girls, in the area.

(3) The restricted opportunities and incentives offered to the coloured
boys and girls to train and to find better-grade employment either in
Cardiff or elsewhere.

(4) The low degree of literacy amongst the community as a whole.

Appendix to Chapter 6

Sample of Questionnaire distributed amongst Heads of Households with a
view to obtaining data relating to the Family budget.

g 8 ^ ^
s ^ 3 ■

'♦M a

o o o g

Children:

Under 14-18 Over
14 18

M F M F M F

Head of Household

His Occupation

Licome (per Week)

Earnings of Father
Earnings of Mother
Earnings of other Members of the
Family, for example. Children

Income from other sources, for
example Lodgers

Expenditure (per Week)

Rent and Rates
Food

Clothing

Coal

Gas

Lighting

Household

Sundries

Personal

Sundries

Total

Total

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

164

Notice: — Household Sundries includes

Travel

Cleaning Material
Laundry
Clubs
Furniture

Personal Sundries includes

Entertainment for children, sweets, cinema, tobacco, football
pools, and other minor items.

Church Collections, Salvation Army, etc., Birthday Presents,
and gifts other than those included in Food.

PART II

THE HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXT
OF RACIAL RELATIONS IN BRITAIN

CHAPTER 7

THE NEGRO IN BRITAIN, 1600 a.d. TO THE PRESENT

DAY

I. The First Coloured Inhabitants of Great Britain

The identity and the date of arrival of the first coloured
inhabitants of or immigrants into Britain is a matter for specula-
tion. It seems most likely that Negroes were first introduced as
slaves in the time of Elizabeth as an outcome of the expeditions
of John Hawkins between Africa and the New World; but it
would not be unreasonable to suppose that there had been
much earlier, if infrequent, visitors. An American Negro
author, basing his claim on the writings of Tacitus, wherein
he finds mention of “the swarthy faces of the Silures, the
curly quality, in general, of their hair”^ suggests that a black
aboriginal race lived in the British Isles in pre-Roman times
side by side with a white one. There is no evidence, however, of
skeletal types approximating to the Negro in the palaeonto-
logical records of these islands, and a controversy similar to that
which surrounds the Upper Palaeolithic discovery of “negroid”
remains at the Grimaldi Cave in the South of France does not
arise. Lack of skeletal remains does not, of course, rule out the
possibility of well-pigmented skins having been an aboriginal
feature, but passing over the question of the “swarthiness” of the
Romans themselves, and the probability of negroid elements
amongst their auxiliaries and camp followers, it seems stifest to
start the British history of the Negro about the middle of the-

^ Tacitus, Loeb Library edition, trans. Sir William Petersen, London
(Heinemann), 1920, pp. 187-9, Agrkola^ §11.

* John Rogers in Crisis^ Jan., 1941.

165

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

1 66

1 6th century. English merchants had just begun to turn their
attention to the Guinea trade, and John Lok, who sailed for the
West Coast of Africa in 1554, brought back with him as part of
his cargo “certaine blacke slaves whereof some were tall and strong
men”. They apparently found English food and the English
manner of life endurable enough, although “the colde and moyst
aire doth somewhat offend them”.^

English participation in the slave trade did not become
significant until about the time of the Restoration in 1660,^ and
it is doubtful, therefore, if the “black man”, whether of African
or of East Indian origin, was a familiar figure until well on in that
century, except as a rather chance visitor, or when imported
from Portuguese colonial territories. Possibly a paragraph in
the Mercurius Politicus of August nth, 1659, affords the earliest
public evidence of the employment of Negro serving boys in this
country. The advertisement in question suggests that the missing
lad’s hair was “polled” or cropped, after the Puritanical fashion
of the time.

“A negro-boy, about nine years of age, in a grey searge suit, his hair cut
close to his head, was lost on Tuesday last, August 9th at night, in St. Nicholas
Lane, London. If anyone can give notice of him to Mr. Thomas Barker at the
Sugar Loaf in that Lane, they shall be rewarded for their pains.” ®

The population of “black-a-moors” in London grew quite
substantially as it became the fashion among the nobility and
leisured class to possess them as servants. Pepys records that
when in 1662 Lord Sandwich brought over Catherine of
Braganza from Portugal to be the queen of Charles the Second,
he carried in the same ship by way of a present to the young
ladies of his family “a little Turke and a negroe”.^ The
latter were clearly something of a novelty in England. Some
seven years later, Mr. Pepys himself is found occasionally
employing a Negro girl in his household as cookmaid with
satisfying results:

“(5th April, 1669.) For a cookmaid we have, ever since Bridget went,
used a black a moor of Mr. Bateliers’s, Doll, who dresses our meat mighty well,
and we mightily pleased with her.”'

* Quoted by C. M. Macinnes, England and Slavery (Arrowsmith) 1934.

' ibid.

^ cf. “The Black Man”. All the Tear Round. A weekly Journal conducted by
as. Dickens, vol. 13, New Series, 1875, PP- 489-93.

* and ‘ ibid.

l600 A.D. TO THE PRESENT DAY

167

2. The Possession of Negroes as Social Insignia

It is possible that the fashion of Negro attendants was derived
from the habit of Venetian merchants of importing them as
slaves and servants, though by the end of the i8th century it
was more original to have a Chinese page than a black one:
“Dear Mama,” wrote the Duchess of Devonshire to her mother,
“George Hanger has sent me a Black boy, eleven years old and
very honest, but the duke don’t like me having a black, and yet
I cannot bear the poor wretch being ill-used; if you liked him
instead of Michel I will send him, he will be a cheap servant
and you will make a Christian of him and a good boy; if you
don’t like him they say Lady Rockingham wants one”.^ The
great ladies and the courtesans of the period were not slow to
perceive the advantage of having a black-skinned attendant
beside them the better to show off the whiteness of their own
skins. They preferred small plump-faced boys, whom they
dressed exotically and more in an eastern than African style of
dress, and treated as pets. It was the duty of the little Negro
boy to wait on his mistress’s person and tea-table, to carry her
train as she moved to and fro, to take charge of her fan and smell-
ing-salts, to feed her parrots, and to comb her lap-dogs. So
usual was the r61e that Garrick’s portrayal of Othello as an
African Negro is said to have provoked the ironic comment:
“Here is Desdemona’s little black boy, Pompey; but why does
he not bring in the tea-kettle and lamp?”^ Artists of the period
also used the Negro as a means of aesthetic expression both on
canvas and on the signboards of inns, and were quick to perceive
the enchanced brilliancy of colour obtained by contrast with his
dark skin.

The practice of riveting silver or copper collars round the
necks of the Negro serving boy and manservant, and of bestow-
ing on them high-sounding classical names, was part of the mode,
and a clear indication of their status as playthings and chattels.^
In this habit of the ladies and gentlemen of Queen Anne’s time
of inscribing their coats of arms and cyphers on the collars of their
Negro slaves there is an interesting cultural parallel with the

^ V. Sackvillc West, Knole and the Sackvilles (Heinemann), 1922.

* ibid.

* ibid.

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

i68

modern dog collar engraved with the name and address of the
animal’s owner. That such a collar was considered as essential
for a Negro slave as for a dog is shown by an advertisement in
the London Advertiser for 1756, in which “Matthew Dyer intimates
to the public that he makes silver padlocks for Blacks or Dogs;
collars, etc.”^

The ascription to the Negro servants and slaves of classical
names like Pompey, Plato, Socrates, etc., seems to have emanated
partly out of the literary fashions of the day, and partly perhaps
out of a certain whimsicality in the intellectual grandeur of the
appellations and the supposed very meagre and servile intelligence
of their object. The custom lingered on well into the 19th
century and after the abolition of Negro slavery in this country.
It was also a way whereby the more literary-minded could
perpetuate their favourite philosopher. As Miss Mackenzie-
Grieve puts it, “The Right Honourable the Earl of Suffolk and
Brandon, with a fine disregard for convenience of address, had his
black boy named Scipio Africanus”.^

3. The Negro’s Domestic Role

Though at first the importation of Negroes into Britain was
mainly to satisfy a fashion and a fad on the part of the nobility,
its domestic convenience was soon apparent, particularly amongst

' As a badge of servitude, the metal collar is, of course, of some antiquity, and its
use even in contemporary times was not confined exclusively to the Negro. In the
Museum of the Antiquarian Society in Edinburgh some years ago there was a specimen
whose inscription shows clearly that the collar was used on a white man — “Alexander
Stewart, found guilty of theft at Perth, December 5th, 1701. Gifted by the Justiciaries
as a perpetual servant to Sir John Erskine of Alva.** (cf. Chambers' Journal, Jan.,
1891, vol. 68, pp. 65-7, “Black Slaves in England**). In his prologue, written on the
reproduction of Beaumont and Fletcher*s Prophetess in 1690, the poet Dryden jestingly
proposes that the English fighting under William III in Ireland should
“Each bring his love a Bogland captive home;

Such proper pages will long trains become;

With copper collars and with brawny backs
Quite to put down the fashion of our blacks.**

{All the Tear Round,)

* cf. Averil Mackenzie-Grieve, The Last Days of the English Slave Trade, This
use of names affords one of the clearest indications of the lowly status of the Negro and
produces an interesting parallel with the modem “race-caste** system of the Southern
states of the U.S., where the custom in many cases is to call all Negroes by some such
nickname as “Tom**, irrespective of their real names. Miss Sackville West records
that “the black page at Knole, of which there had always been one since the days of
Lady Anne Clifford . . . had ^ways been called John Morocco regardless of what his
true name might be** {op, cit,).

l600 A.D. TO THE PRESENT DAY

169

planters and others accustomed to be waited upon by black
servants in the Tropical settlements. The custom was emulated
and practised extensively by the end of the 17th century by
wealthy West India merchants returning to England, and
there is no doubt that the precedent for it was set in the highest
circles. ^ It was natural, perhaps, that planters coming home on
holiday, or to settle down in retirement, should prefer their old
servants to new white ones, but the mode was imitated, in turn,
by middle-class aspirants to gentility. The commanders of
slaving vessels, for example, were allowed to transport a few
slaves in each cargo for their personal profit. The post of captain
of such a craft was a lucrative one, and those who gained it were
prone to make display of their good fortune by the use of gaudily-
laced coats and cocked hats, and large silver or sometimes gold
buttons on their coats. A special mark of distinction was the
black slave attending them in the streets.^ Female Negroes
reached this country in the same way, and ambitious merchants,
already engaged in the slave trade at Liverpool and Bristol, as
well as other members of the prosperous and rising middle classes,
would bid eagerly against each other at an occasional auction
for the privilege of owning some of the human left-overs of a cargo
of flour, wine and other merchandise.

The newspapers of the i8th century contain a fairly extensive
record of these public auctions and private offers of sale in all
parts of the country, as well as descriptions of runaways. The
following are examples: —

London Advertiser, 1756; “To be sold, a Negro boy aged about fourteen
years old, warranted free from any distemper, and has had those fatal to that
colour; has been used two years to all kinds of household work, and to wait
at table; his price is £25, and would not be sold but the person he belongs to
is leaving off business. Apply at the bar of the George Coffee-house in Chancery
Lane, over against the Gate.”

Another advertisement in the Public Ledger for December
31st, 1761, reads like an offer of young dogs:

“A healthy Negro Girl, aged about fifteen years; speaks good English,
works at her needle, washes well, does household work, and has had the small
pox.”’

‘In 1891 there existed at Hampton Court the bust of a favourite slave of William
III, the head of which was black marble and the drapery round the shoulders and
chest of veined yellow marble. . . . (Chambers’ Journal, ubi cit.)

’ John Latimer, Armais of Bristol in the Eighteenth Century.

’ Quoted in Chambers’ Journal, ubi cit.

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

170

From Bristol in January 1768 comes the record of another
youthful Negro slave in the following advertisement:

“To be sold, a healthy Negro slave, named Prince, 17 years of age, 5 feet
10 inches high, and extremely well grown. Enquire of Joshua Springer, in
St. Stephen’s Lane.’’*

The following is an example of a bill of sale. “BILL etc. etc. —
To all to whom these presents shall come David Lisle of the parish
of St. James, etc. etc, greeting. Know ye that the said David
Lisle, for in consideration of the sum of thirty pounds good and
lawful money, etc. to him in hand truly paid by James Kerr,
Esq. late of Jamaica, etc. etc., doth grant, bargain, sell and con-
firm unto the said James Kerr Jonathan Strong, to the only
proper and absolute use and behalf of the said J. Kerr, his heirs,
and assigns, etc. for ever and ever, etc. Signed David Lisle.”
(Here follows a receipt from David Lisle for the thirty pounds
paid by James Kerr.) ^

Though the actual branding of slaves was probably done only
abroad, branding-irons as well as slave collars, thumb-screws,
and mouth-openers .were displayed for sale in the shops of Liver-
pool as late as the beginning of the 19th century.

4. Confusion over the Legal Position of Negroes

Thanks to home-coming planters and the general circum-
stances of the slave-trade, the Negro population of Great Britain
must have increased steadily through the i8th century. By 1770,
in London alone, it has been estimated variously at 14,000 and
20,000, either figure being a substantial proportion of the metro-
politan population of those days.^ Nor is there much reason to
doubt there were a fair number of Negroes living outside, more
particularly in various seaport towns, ^ as well as on estates in the

^ Communicated by the Public Librarian, Bristol.

* “Minutes of the Trial of Jonathan Strong” quoted from Memoranda of G. S. in
the Memoirs of Granville Sharp by Prince Hoar, pp. 34-35.

® The population of London in 1695 been estimated at 69,581 residents
within the walls, and 53,508 residents outside the walls (excluding the Inns of Court),
a total of 123,089. cf. P. E. Jones and A. V. Judges, “London Population in the late
Seventeenth Century”, Econ. Hist, Rev,y vol. 6, 1935/6, pp. 45-63. Macinnes, op, cit,,
doubts if the total slave population in England ever rose above 1 5,000, or at the most
20,000 (p. 107).

* Latimer, for example, records that slaves were numerous in Bristol till the end of
the 1 8th century.

l600 A.D. TO THE PRESENT DAY I 7 I

country. At the end of the 1 7th century and onwards there was a
considerable coming and going between the sugar Colonies and
the Mother Country.

The psychological effect on the slave of this transmigration,
in bringing him into a country where the “air” was relatively
free, played quite a significant part in the circumstances which
eventually gave rise to the Mansfield judgment of 1772. No less
important psychologically, as Coupland points out, was the
effect which the introduction of Negro slavery into Britain had in
sharpening criticism of the slave trade itself. ^ Yet legally speaking,
the position of the Negro in Britain in the i8th century was far
more confusing than his social status. As early as the time of
Elizabeth, a noted judge had declared that the air of England
was too pure for a slave to breathe. Again, in the reign of
Anne, Lord Chief Justice Holt affirmed that “As soon as a
negro comes to England he becomes free”, and about the
same time Mr. Justice Powell asserted that “The law takes
no notice of negroes”. Yet in 1720, the lawyers, Talbot and
Hardwicke, gave it as a counter opinion that the mere fact
of a slave coming into these countries did not render him free,
and that he could be compelled to return again to the planta-
tions. The judgment of Hardwicke, in 1749, that a runaway
slave could legally be recovered was even more decisive in this
respect.

Probably the popular attitude saw nothing extraordinary
in a Negro being a slave, even in England, not because he was
black, but because the rights of human beings, irrespective of
colour, were apt at the time to be defined rather in terms of
social and economic status than of humanity. It was a period
when the demand for labour in the newly-settled colonial lands
was extremely urgent and even insatiable.

In the effort to cope with it all kinds of practices on the part
of the settlers and their agents were condoned, which seem
almost fantastic in the light of the humanitarian movement
which followed so shortly afterwards, particularly when it is
remembered that the kidnapping and spiriting away of children
and young girls, and selling them, as well as convicts and “in-
dentured labourers”, to the Colonists in both the West Indian
and the American plantations, was almost contemporary with the
^ R. Goupland, Abolition of the Slave Trade,

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

172

anti-slavery agitation in England.^ According to a Scottish
writer, between the years 1 740 and 1 746, when the commerce in
the north-east of Scotland was at its height, over 600 boys and
girls were abducted and transported as slaves to the American
plantations by traders.^ Throughout the i8th century and, on
occasion, until well on in the 19th, there are instances, also, of
wives being publicly sold by their husbands in the open market. ^
All this, and certain elements in the cultural background of the

^ cf. inter alia, A Young Squire of the lyth Century, ed. J. G. Jeaffreson, 1878. The
biographical memoirs relate how the Lords of the Committee for Foreign Plantations
approved of the author’s petition for 300 malefactors, sentenced to serve as slaves
for eight years, from the gaols of London and Middlesex. Jeaffreson, however, was
warn^ by men of experience that he would not get a single lot unless he paid certain
fees, varying from 45/- to 55/- for each' malefactor, to the chief gaoler of Newgate..
The greater part of such payments went into the pockets of this official and of the
Recorder. Some other part went to the Keeper of the London prisons, whose prisoners
had been removed into Newgate: there were gratuities to be paid out of each sum to
under-gaolers and turnkeys. The chief gaoler had paid dearly for his office, and the
keepers of the other London prisons had done likewise. Fees of this kind stimulated
the prison keepers to take good care of the convicts.

*Tn like manner good came to society from a practice which encouraged the
Recorder to exert himself for the conviction of scoundrels who might escape the grip
of the law, if juries were not duly and cogently instructed to return verdicts of
‘guilty*.”

Jeaffreson tried to obtain his convicts without paying “the usual fees”, but
immediately encountered every kind of obstacle, and after several months of strenuous
effort was obliged to compromise. He was eventually able to ship his malefactors
from the Thames to the West Indies after paying prison fees for them to the amount of
45/- per head. This was just io/~ per head less than the usual sum. He obtained
this small advantage only by an infinite amount of wrangling, and came to the con-
clusion that the game was not worth the candle.

Among those who voluntarily sold themselves as indentured servants owing to
economic distress in the i8th century were many from Scotland and Ireland. Captain
Hugh Crow describes how, when the unfortunate Irish peasants were being put up
for sale in Charleston, South Carolina, the Negro slaves pretended that they were
about to purchase them, at which the terrified Irishmen cried out: “Och! masters!
Och! jewels! — don’t let them blackamoors buy us at all, at all!” (cf. Memoirs of the
late Captain Hugh Crow of Liverpool, p. 9.)

In 1936 Miss Horsburgh (later Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Health,
was appointed to a committee of investigation into the traffic in unwanted babies)
Later she informed the House of Commons that she had examined “price lists” of
children catalogued at £^00 and ;^6oo. (Reported in Daily Express, 1943.)

* cf. G. Brodie, “When Scots were sold as Slaves”, Scots Mag., Dec. 1939.

^ cf. W. Andrews, Bygone England, 1892. “It was generally believed in bygone
days that in this country a husband might lawfully sell his wife to another man
provided he conducted the transaction in some public place and delivered her to the
purchaser with a halter about her neck. The sales were duly reported in the news-
papers of the period, usually without any special comment as items of everyday news.
In some instances market tolls were collected similar to those charged for animals
brought to the public market.*’

Andrews relates that the following advertisement appeared in The Times for July

19th, 1797:

“By some mistake in our report of the Smithfield Market we had not learned
the average price for wives for the last week,” and the journal goes on:

“The increasing value of the fair sex is esteemed by several eminent writers

I Goo A,D. TO THE PRESENT DAY I73

times, for example the festive attitude toward public executions, ^
suggests that the freedom of the individual was a very relative
matter on occasions and frequently precarious. With popular
opinion on the wider implications of the subject somewhat
irregular and apparently indifferent, the fact that there was
some uncertainty as to the actual law and precedent in the
matter of the slavery of the Negro in Britain — a small and
unprotected minority — is not surprising.

This consideration is very evident in the reasoning of Granville
Sharp’s dissertation “On the Injustice and Dangerous Tendency
of Tolerating Negro Slavery in England”, and in the necessity
of his providing a suitable “test case” before satisfaction could be
obtained.

Thus, the Gentleman's Magazine, commenting on the sale of the
effects of one John Rice, in the shape of a Negro boy, for ;^32,
offers the somewhat naive remark that this was “perhaps the
first custom of the kind in a free country”. Recording another
and similar instance in 1771, the Stamford Mercury calls it likewise
“a shocking instance in a free country”.^

5. Friends of the Negro

Possibly the legality of the slave status of the Negro was taken
for granted rather than actually condoned. Long before 1755,
when Bishop Hayter condemned the Trade from the pulpit,
and Wesley shattered the complacency of the Church, there were
people in England who perceived the incompatibility of Christian
buying and selling Christian, even if the latter were a black man.
A significant comment is that of Steele, the essayist, who wrote in
the Tatler in 1710:

“As I am a patron of persons who have no other friend to apply to, I cannot
suppress the following complaint: Sir — I am a six year-old negro boy, and have,

as a certain criterion of increasing civilization. Smithfield has, on this ground,
strong pretensions to refined improvement, as the price of wives has risen in that
market from half-a-guinea to three guineas and a half.**

'It wa^ a time when, as Muralt relates in his Letters on the English Nation^ criminals
passed through the streets in carts on their way to die at Tyburn, dressed in their best
clothes, with white gloves and nosegays, and when cock-fights, bull-baiting, and
extreme alcoholism were the main diversions of the nauUitude,

* Chambers' Journaly ubi cit.

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

174

by my lady’s order, been christened by the chaplain. The good man has gone
further with me, and told me a great deal of news; as I am as good as my lady
herself, as I am a Christian, and many other things; but for all this, the parrot
who came over with me from our country is as much esteemed by her as I am.
Besides this, the shock dog has a collar that cost as much as mine. I desire
also to know whether, now I am a Christian, I am obliged to dress like a Turke
and wear a turbant. I am, sir, your most obedient servant, Pompey.” ‘

Other literary figures of the day wrote sympathetically on
or advocated tolerance of the coloured races. Mrs. Aphra Behn,
who as a girl had lived in Surinam, took a Negro for the hero of
her most famous novel, Oroonoko or the Royal Slave, which was
published in 1696, and dramatised by Southerne. Defoe con-
demned the Slave trade and advocated kindness to Negroes in his
Life of Colonel Jacques, as well as drawing a picture of the “noble
savage” in his Robinson Crusoe. Pope in his Essay on Man (1773),
Sterne in his Tristram Shandy (1759), and Thomas Day in a poem
picturing the friendless plight of the Negro in London, were other
Negrophiles. The instance of Samuel Johnson, who shocked the
men of Oxford by proposing as a toast — “Here’s to the next
insurrection of the negroes in the West Indies,” is even better
known. ^

6. The Negro’s Bid for Freedom

Steele’s complaint was symbolic of a situation which was
developing fast amongst the slaves and giving rise to a great deal
of uneasiness amongst the West Indian planting class, both in
England and in the Colonies. The slaves newly arrived in England
were quick to learn that the law respecting them was by no means
precisely defined. Some of them tried the experiment of running
away from their masters, and the idea soon spread, encouraged by
English sympathisers, the Quakers in particular, that the pro-
cedure of seizing and holding them by force was not sanctioned
by English law. Possibly, too, the mere psychological effect of
seeing white people in a similar servile capacity to themselves
was significant in altering their attitudes towards their masters,
as it has proved in the case of coloured people at the present day.

^ Quoted in All the Tear Round, ubi cit. This passage seems to suggest that Christian-
ity rather than race or nationality was still looked upon as the main criterion of
group loyalty and inclusiveness.

^ Coupland, op, cit.

l600 A.D. TO THE PRESENT DAY 1 75

The idea was also strongly held that all persons who were baptized
became thereby free, ^ and in consequence the Negroes made every
effort to be baptized as soon as they landed, and to obtain English
people as godfathers and as witnesses of their baptism in the
hope that these would plead their cause, and resist any forcible
attempt to send them out of the kingdom.

The news spread no less quickly through the West Indies.
Negroes there, who were slaves on the plantations, importuned
or bribed seamen to smuggle them on board English-going
craft so that they might win their freedom in Britain. The
numerous advertisements in the newspapers of the period regard-
ing runaway slaves and the rewards offered for them testify to
this situation. The planters and others concerned were in a
dilemma. Unwilling on the one hand to lose their slaves and so
allow an awkward precedent to become established, they were
afraid on the other to run the risk of taking them back by force,
and thus possibly incurring the unfavourable decision of a
public tribunal. The matter was solved for a time, however,
by Talbot and Hardwicke in the decision already referred to,
to which these lawyers added that even the rite of baptism did
not free the Negro slave — it could affect only his spiritual, not
his temporal condition. Heartened by this opinion, the merchants
and planters took every step to publicize it, and adopted all
possible means to make it effective. The London newspapers
abounded with advertisements of slaves who had absconded,
with descriptions of their persons and offers of rewards for their
apprehension. To all intents and purposes the runaway became
an “unprotected person”, at the mercy of the planters’ agents,
and liable to be decoyed and seized by any enterprising person,
even in the open street, and sold off to the captain of a West
Indiaman.^ The earning of such rewards became one of the
disreputable professions of riverside London, and in some cases
the runaway Negro only added to his predicament, since as the

^ The hostility shown by many West Indian slave-owners to missionary activity
amongst their slaves was probably prompted more by fear of the latter acquiring some
education and becoming more difficult to handle than by the complications arising
out of the treatment of a fellow Christian.

* M. Dorothy George, London Life in the iSth Century^ cf. “Immigrants and Emi-
grants,” pp. 133-40.

Nor, according to Latimer {pp, cit.) was the apprehension of runaways left entirely
to private individuals. In 1725, the postmaster of Bristol was the agent employed to
recapture a slave living in Bristol, and thb fact was published in the official organ of
the Government.

176 NEGROES IN BRITAIN

price of his freedom he was obliged to hide himself away to starve
in some riverside parish.

It is not surprising, therefore, that Negroes appeared from
time to time at the Old Bailey, charged with petty theft. In 1 780,
one was tried as a Gordon rioter. The well-known London
magistrate. Sir John Fielding, protested against the practice of
bringing them over from the West Indies. In his words one catches
an echo, not only of the attitudes of the property-owning classes
of those days, but of a number of contemporary opinions on the
colour question:^

“The immense confusion that has arose in the families of merchants and
other gentlemen who have estates in the West Indies from the great numbers of
Negro slaves they have brought into this Kingdom . . . deserves the most
serious attention. Many of these gentlemen have either at a vast expense
caused some of their blacks to be instructed in the necessary qualifications of
a domestic servant or have purchased them after they have been instructed;
they then bring them to England as cheap servants having no right to wages;
they no sooner arrive here than they put themselves on a footing with other
servants, become intoxicated with liberty, grow refractory, and either by
persuasion of others or from their own inclinations, begin to expect wages
according to their own opinion of their merits; and as there are already a great
number of black men and women who have made themselves so troublesome
and dangerous to the families who have brought them over as to get themselves
discharged, these enter into societies and make it their business to corrupt
and dissatisfy the mind of every black servant that comes to England; first by
getting them christened or married, which, they inform them, makes them free
. . . though it has been decided otherwise by the judges. However it so far
answers their purpose that it gets the mob on their side and makes it not only
difficult but dangerous ... to recover possession of them, when once they
are spirited away; and indeed, it is the less evil of the two to let them go about
their business, for there is great reason that those blacks who have been sent
back to the Plantations . . . have been the occasion of those , . . recent
insurrections in the . . . West Indies. It is a species of inhumanity to the
blacks themselves, to bring them to a free country.*’ ^

7. The Legal Battle for Emancipation Begins

The “difficulties and dangers” of recovering possession of
absconding black servants increased considerably when Granville
Sharp and his friends began to take an embarrassing interest
in the matter in 1766. But even before that date distressed
Negroes were often treated with sympathy in the Courts, as is

» ibid.

* Quoted by George, op, cit.

i6ooa.d. to the present day 177

to be seen from the records of the Middlesex Sessions. As early
as 1690, Katharine Auker, a black, petitioned to be discharged
from her master as he was in Barbados. She said she had been
brought to England about six years before by Robert Rich, a
planter. She was baptized at St. Katharine’s by the Tower, and
after that her master and mistress “tortured her and turned her
out”, and her said master refusing to give her a discharge, “she
could not be entertained in service elsewhere”.^

More fundamental issues were raised by the case of John
Caesar, whose wife petitioned the Sessions in 1717. Her husband,
she said, had served Benjamin and John Wood, who were
printers and embossers in Whitechapel, as a slave without wages
for fourteen years. They had very much abused the said John
with very hard usage and for the greatest part of the time had
imprisoned him in their dwelling-house. Seven years ago he had
been baptized, nevertheless he was still detained as a slave,
though “as the petitioner is advised, slavery is inconsistent with th'e
laws of this realm”. She herself was very poor and destitute, and
likely to become chargeable to the parish unless her husband
was released from his slavery and confinement, and so enabled to
provide for himself and the petitioner. The Court recommended
the master to come to some reasonable agreement with regard to
wages, and as the recommendation was not acted upon, at the
next sessions certain justices were ordered to consider what wages
ought to be allowed to Caesar. ^

Difficulties of this kind seem sometimes to have induced the
the owners of slaves to enter into indentures with them, and so
secure a property in their labour by a contract recognized in
English courts, and not open to doubtful construction. This at
all events seems to be the explanation of certain advertisemenst
such as the following:

“Run away on Wednesday, the 28th ult., and stole money and goods from
his master, John Lamb, Esq., an indentured black servant man, named
William, of a brown or tawny complexion.”

There is also mention of a “black” as an apprentice boy,®
apparently as free as other apprentices, which is perhaps not saying
very much. Anthony Emmanuel had been bound, in 1 723, to one
Samuel Johnson with the consent of his then mistress. Two years
later his master petitioned for his discharge, as notwithstanding

1 ibid. * ibid. • ibid.

7

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

178

his kindness the apprentice ran away, embezzled money, and
remained incorrigible in spite of having been put in the House of
Correction. ^

In 1731, the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London passed an
ordinance forbidding the teaching of trades to Negroes.^ Possibly
this suggests that the merchants were becoming nervous of the
growing degree of independence on the part of the Negroes, many
of whom by this time were either actually or virtually free.
Among the latter should be numbered Dr. Johnson’s servant,
Francis Barber, of whom there is frequent mention in Boswell.
Johnson himself had always been a zealous opponent of slavery
in any form. Boswell, however, was of the opinion “with all
deference that, in suchwise, he discovered a zeal without dis-
cretion”; and that the attempts then being made to “abolish so
very necessary and important a branch of commercial interest”
as the traffic in Negroes were “wild and dangerous”.^ Perhaps
Johnson received Francis Barber into his service out of sympathy
and charity with an oppressed race, but it is plain that he regarded
him as his property, if not exactly as his slave. On one occasion.
Barber, tiring perhaps of the Doctor’s platitudes, ran away to sea,
whereupon Johnson wrote to the Admiralty and procured the
boy’s discharge.^

8 . Granville Sharp Takes a Hand

In the meantime, owing very largely to the energy and
persistence of Granville Sharp, a series of cases contesting the

1 ibid.

® Rogers, op, cit.

® All the Tear Rounds ubi cit.

^ Francis Barber was born in Jamaica, and was brought to England in 1750 by a
Colonel Bathurst, father of Johnson’s very intimate friend, Dr. Bathurst, The Colonel
by his will left him his freedom, and Dr. Bathurst was willing that he should enter
into Johnson’s service, (cf. Boswell’s Life of Johnson, ed. A. Glover, footnote to p. 151.)
Johnson always showed the keenest interest in the advancement of the Negro boy.
He placed him in a school at Northampton, and in 1770 he wrote to Barber, who at
that date could not have been less than forty years of age — “I am very well satisfied
with your progress, if you really perform the exercises which you are set. Let me
know what English books you read for your entertainment. You can never be wise
unless you love reading. Do not imagine that I shall forget or forsake you: for if,
when I examine you, I find that you have not lost your time, you shall want no
encouragement. From yours affectionately, Sam Johnson.” Barber remained with
him until Johnson’s death in 1784, and benefited considerably under his will {Alt
the Tear Round, ubi cit.).

l600 A.D. TO THE PRESENT DAY 1 79

right of persons to own Negro slaves was being fought out in the
English courts. The first concerned a Negro by the name of
Jonathan Strong, who had been brought to England by his master,
David Lisle, a lawyer. Lisle attempted to kidnap the Negro
some time after turning him adrift destitute in the London
streets, but Sharp secured his release from the Poultry Compter
(a well-known prison) on a technical point. ^

It was this incident, possibly, which gave the final stimulus
to Sharp’s interest in the question of Negro slavery, and con-
firmed his determination to see the matter through. He realized,
however, that to make any headway it would be necessary to
sort out the tangled mass of legal precedent on the subject. He
applied to many lawyers for their opinion, amongst others to the
celebrated Judge Blackstone, but obtained small satisfaction. The
Talbot opinion had been made so extensively known, and the
financial implications respecting the property in slaves were so
obvious that few cared to consider the difficulties of refutation.
Sharp saw that there was no alternative to a full legal research
into the matter, and the result was the publication, a few years
later, of the historic tract to which reference has already been
made. ^

Sharp clarified this “dangerous tendency” in a number of
ingenious legal and economic arguments. If, he argued, it was
once permitted to retain Negroes in England as slaves by enforc-
ing the ancient laws of villeinage, then the foundation would be
laid in their posterity, i.e., mulattoes, for a most dangerous
vassalage in which the poorer members even of the original
English people might be involved. Surely masters could already
obtain servants in England at a low enough rate of wage? Work-
people in England were already living and working on the barest
level of subsistence, whereas the upkeep of a slave would cost as
much as the wages of an English labourer, and even more, since
the latter generally provided for themselves and that voluntarily

^ For a more detailed account of this incident, in which Sharp appears to have
acted with considerable initiative and presence of mind, see Prince Hoar, Memoirs
of Granville Sharp, and Copley, History of Slavery,

2 op. cit.; cf. also E. G. P. Lascelles, Granville Sharp and the Freedom of Slaves.

“In this work (Granville Sharp) clearly refutes the long established opinion,
producing against it the decision of Lord Justice Holt, many years before, that a slave
on coming to England became free. He also refuted it from the ancient law of
villeinage in England, and by the axiom of the British constitution “that every man
in England is free to sue for and defend his rights, and that force cannot be used
without a legal process.**

i8o

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

at a cheaper rate of maintenance. If a master could obtain the
services of an apprentice, who would work for 6 or 7 years or
more without any wages at all, why should he incur the expense
and trouble of bringing slaves over to this country? Not only was
there the prime cost of the slave, but the cost of transporting him,
and apothecaries’ and surgeons’ bills should he fall sick or meet
with an accident. Besides, if the law condoned the kidnapping
of Negroes, the next step would be to connive at the kidnapping
of white men. ^ Sharp’s tract was widely distributed, especially
amongst lawyers. It provoked a lively interest in the matter, and
prepared the judges for the final issue.

A number of Negroes were rescued in the Courts, ^ but on some
technical point, and it was some time before Sharp had an
opportunity of putting the issue to the real test. There was
evidence that popular feeling on the matter was stirring.^ The
lawyers, on the other hand, seemed far more disposed to let
sleeping dogs lie; mainly, perhaps, because the vested interests
of the slave-owners were very great.

“There were at least 14,000 Negroes in the country, many of them brought
over on the strength of the well-known opinion of the Law Officers and the
decision of the King’s Bench. Putting them only at each, the masters
would lose £y 00 i 000 if Granville proved right, and it was a terrible thought
that the loss would be due to the mistake of English Lawyers and English

^ The full list of slaves rescued in England by Sharp is as follows:

Jonathan Strong .... Saved from the Poultry Compter.

Thomas Lewis .... Saved from a ship in the Downs.

John Thomas .... Who afterwards went to China.

Another John Thomas . . Brought by a clergyman’s widow.

An Indian.

James Somersett . . . .In whose case Lord Mansfield gave a just

and decisive judgment.

Two Negroes from the Havannah . Demanded and saved from an English ship

in the river Thames: one of whom was a
free man of Antigua, who escaped from
prison at the Havannah: both his feet
were mortified with the cold on board the
English ship, so that when G. S. sent him
to St. Bartholomew’s hospital, they were
obliged to amputate both legs near to the
knee.

Another Negro, son of an eminent Saved from a ship in the Downs, with nearly

slave-dealer at Sierra Leone, and the same extraordinary circumstances as
an acquaintance of young Naim- in the case of T. Lewis,
banna (the King’s son).

John Cambridge .... Defended against Captain Holman.

(Quoted from Sharp’s own memoranda, footnote to page 248, The Memoirs,
op, cit.)

* At the Lewis trial, for example, there was a general cry from the jury of “No
property, no property”. (Lascdlcs, op cit,)

l600 A.D. TO THE PRESENT DAY l8l

Courts, and that a mere layman had put them right. Besides, there would be
the possibility of action for damages by every slave who had been punished
by his master, and claim for wages ever since they had been brought Jto
England.”^

The words of the Chief Justice, Lord Mansfield, in summing
up one of these cases, bespeak his obvious aversion to any dis-
turbance of the status quo^ and offer a paternalistic, if naive,
solution to the problem:

I don’t know what the consequences may be, if the masters were to lose
their property by accidentally bringing their slaves to England. I hope it will
never be finally discussed; for I would have all masters think them free, and
all Negroes think they were not, because they would both behave better. *

Sharp’s opportunity came at last in 1772. A slave, James
Somersett, was brought by his master to England in 1769. He
escaped, was recaptured, and eventually rescued from on board
the ship which was to have returned him to Jamaica. This time
there was no dispute as to the master’s claim, and no loophole
for legal ingenuity. Sharp prepared his case with the greatest
care, but there was some delay, as Mansfield adjourned the case
twice, and threw out a broad hint to Somersett’s owner that even
at this stage the difficulty might be obviated by setting the slave
free. But the owner, a Mr. Knowles, was apparently quite
regardless of the inconvenience which his obdurate attitude was
about to cause both to Lord Mansfield and to thousands of slave
owners in the country. Seeing that it was no longer possible to
defer a decision, the Lord Chief Justice finally came to judgment
after a further and somewhat apologetic hint to the merchant
class that their last remaining hope lay in an appeal to Parliament.

“We pay all due attention to the opinion of sir Phillip Yorke, and lord
chancellor Talbot, whereby they pledged themselves to the British planters,
for all the legal consequences of slaves coming to this Kingdom or being
baptized, recognized by lord Hardwicke, sitting as chancellor on the 19th
October 1749, that trover would lie; that a notion had prevailed, if a negro
came over, or became a Christian, he was emancipated but no ground in law;
that he and lord Talbot, when attorney and solicitor general, were of opinion,
that no such claim for freedom was valid. . . . We are so well agreed, that we
think there is no occasion for having it argued (as I intimated an intention at
first), before all the judges, as is usual, for obvious reasons, on a return to a

^ Lascelles, op, cit.

* Minutes of the Trial of Thos. Lewis at the Court of the King\^ Bench, 20th Feb., 1771.

Some measure of the influence exercised in domestic affairs by the planters is
seen, perhaps, in the estimate that during the eighteenth century absentee proprietors
of sugar plantations in the West Indies spent about four million pounds sterling
annually in Britain (cf. J. S. Marais, The Cape Coloured People, Longmans, Green &
Go., 1939, p. 187).

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

182

Habeas Corpus. The only question before us is whether the cause on the
return is sufficient? If it is, the negro must be remanded; if it is not, he must be
discharged. Accordingly, the return states, that the slave departed and refused
to serve; whereupon he was kept, to be sold abroad. So high an act of domin-
ion must be recognized by the law of the kingdom where it is used. The power
of a master over his slave has been extremely different, in different countries.
The state of slavery is of such a nature, that it is incapable of being introduced
on any reasons, moral or political, but only by positive law, which preserves
its force long after the reasons, occasion, and time itself from which it was
created, is erased from memory. It is so odious, that nothing can be suffered
to support it, but positive law. Whatever inconveniences, therefore, may
follow from the decision, I cannot say this case is allowed or approved by the
law of England; and therefore the black must be discharged.”^

9. The Aftermath of Negro “Emancipation”

There were various repercussions of the Somersett case,
notably in 1776 when a Negro boy, who had been shipped from
England and forced to serve as a slave, successfully sued for his
liberty and his pay. ^ Not unnaturally, the Mansfield judgment
found no favour with the planting and commercial class, although
it did not immediately and directly concern those whose business
was merely with exporting slaves from Africa to the West Indies.^
The business men were unsuccessful, however, in their attempt
to promote a Bill in the next session of Parliament in 1773 for the
toleration of slavery, i.e. the securing of property in Negroes and
other slaves in this kingdom.^

Thenceforward Negro slavery was not recognized in England. ®

^ State Trials, 1771 — 1777, p. 82. This decision is alluded to in the often-quoted
lines of Gowper:

“Slaves cannot breathe in England: if their lungs
Imbibe our air, that moment they are free.

They touch our country, and their shackles fall. . .

Macinnes {op, cit,) considers that the Mansfield judgment may be regarded as the
beginning of the abolitionist movement.

A writer in the Gentleman'^ Magazine, 1772, vol. 42, asked the rather inconvenient
question if there was

“any Act of Parliament or clause of an Act of Parliament that has fixed and
described the zones or climates wherein property in Negroes may be had, or where
it may not be had?**

* Copley, op. cit.

® “A Planter*’ wrote: “The planters of course have been left as much puzzled by
this Delphic Ambiguity, as the sages themselves appear to have been, in forming their
judgments upon the subject. The matter having been confounded in this grand
uncertainty.” (Hoar, op. cit.)

* Lascelles, op. cit.

® The Somersett judgment covered Ireland also. According to Coupland {op,
cit.), the Scottish judges delivered a similar decision in 1778 in the case of Joseph
Knight.

I Goo A.D. TO THE PRESENT DAY 1 83

It is probable, nevertheless, that usages similar to slavery did- not
immediately disappear. For some years after the Somersett case,
there are records of “slaves” coming into this country with their
masters, or being sold and shipped out. As late as December 8th,
1792, according to Latimer, a Bristol journal reported that a
wealthy citizen had just sold a “black servant girl, who had been
many years in his service”, into perpetual bondage. ^ There is a
later report, also, of a slave, John Wise of St. Vincent, accompany-
ing his master to Bath, where he was manumitted, and settled
with ^20 in consideration of long and faithful service to a doctor.
The same man continued in service at Bath, and later shipped
on a brig as a steward at 15s. per month wages. ^

Though it altered and secured their legal position, the
Somersett case probably made little difference to the occupations,
and even to the social status, of the majority of Negroes in this
country. A large number of them appear to have remained with
their former masters as paid servants. Some hundreds, however,
took themselves off and prepared to live as free men. They had
little skilled ability and few trades at their disposal, and not a few
of them found it impossible to obtain employment. A number
seem to have regarded freedom as including immunity from
work.^ In 1783, the number of derelict Negroes in the London
parishes was increased as a result of peace with the American
Colonies. Those who had been serving with the British forces
overseas were sent, some to Nova Scotia, some to the Bahamas,
and the rest to London, where they, too, quickly fell into distress.
Negroes became conspicuous among London beggars, and were
known as St. Giles’ Blackbirds.^ Granville Sharp, whose phil-
anthropy had already marked him out as the friend of all Negroes
in trouble, was soon surrounded by a host of needy pensioners. ®

^ The price of the woman, who was shipped to Jamaica, was £8o colonial currency.
When she “put her feet into the fatal boat at Lamplighters’ Hall, her tears ran down
her face like a shower of rain.” (Latimer, op. cit.) The following advertisement also
appeared in a Liverpool newspaper, Oct. 15th, 1779 — To be sold by auction at
George Dunbar’s office, on Thursday next, the 21st inst., at one o’clock, a Black Boy,
aged about fourteen years old, and a large Mountain Tiger Cat (Hoar, op. cit., p. 93).

^Report of the African Institution, 1807.

^ George, op. cit.

^ ibid.

® Hoar, op. cit.. Obituary notice of Granville Sharp. “Mr. Granville Sharp was occupied
in humanely trying to remedy an inconvenience which had grown out of his own
benevolent exertions on behalf of the African slaves. . . . The Negroes, therefore,
who had been brought to England, being locked up, as it were, in London, and having
now no master to support them (many of them unaccustomed to any useful handicraft

184

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

10 The Sierra Leone Solution

The Poor Law Authorities regarded this new class of the
“poor” without enthusiasm, and although a committee for
the Relief of the Black Poor was formed under the chairmanship
of Jonas Hanway (famous for his endeavours on behalf of the
climbing-boys), it soon found itself in the same difficulty as
Sharp. ^ In their dilemma. Sharp and other philanthropists,
not to mention the Poor Law Authorities, were only too pleased
when a Mr. Smeatham, a naturalist with some knowledge of West
Africa, came forward with a scheme for the settlement of the
Negroes on a piece of land at Sierra Leone. This was in 1 786.
Posters were set up in the London streets, and applications were
immediately invited from those who were “desirous of settling
in one of the most fertile and pleasant countries in the known
world”. In its anxiety to rid the country of the indigent Negroes,
the Government offered to provide transport by sea, and ^12
per head for subsistence.^ Some seven hundred Negroes pre-
sented themselves, and eventually 41 1 would-be settlers, many
of them “men of ardent passions, whose only lessons had been
stripes, and whom experience had instructed to start with dread
from their fellow-creatures”, set sail to found the colony which
was to become known as Freetown.^ By a convenient arrange-
ment, and as a means of getting rid of a further section of the
unwanted, some sixty white prostitutes were shipped along with
them in the same transport. This aspect of the scheme was no
doing of Sharp; but removal of prostitutes to the Colonies was a
favourite method of the age for reforming and providing for such
women. It appears that the women were actually decoyed on
board. One of them explained that she had been taken with
others of her kind by prospective customers to Wapping, plied
with drink, taken on board and “married” to a Negro. She had

or calling), and having besides no parish which they could call their own, fell by
degrees into great distress, so that they were alarmingly conspicuous throughout the
streets as beggars. As Mr. Sharp was their known patron, they had all flocked to him.
in their turn, for support: he had considered them as orphans who had some title to
his care: he had occasionally relieved them. But their number being great (about
four hundred), he found that he could not relieve them daily, consistently with his
engagements to others. . .

^ cf. George, op. cit.

* Hoar, op. cit., p. 261.

I Goo A.D. TO THE PRESENT DAY 1 85

been too drunk to remember anything that had happened the
night before, and was obliged the following morning to enquire
who her husband was. ^

Other Negroes went out to the West Indies, where they
worked as free labourers; but “blacks” continued to be con-
spicuous among London beggars, and in 1814 a Parliamentary
Committee reported that there were many Negroes in London
whose condition deserved the attention of the House of
Commons. ^

1 1 . Other Coloured and Asiatic Inhabitants

It was about this time that another kind of coloured popula-
tion first began to be noticeable in England, more particularly
in London. These were Lascars from the East Indies, and Chinese
seamen, who throughout the nineteenth, and to an increasing
extent in the present, century, have played an important part
in the manning of British merchant vessels. These men were
brought over in East India Company ships, and on arrival in the
Thames were discharged, and left in London for some months
before shipment on the return voyage. In several respects they
were at a disadvantage compared even with the Negroes.
Ignorant of England and of English ways, they were exploited
by each other, and by the worst products of the riverside slums of
Wapping, Shadwell, and Poplar. Some of them found their
way as beggars to the west end of London, and shelter in the
common lodging houses of St. Giles. ^ There was a controversy

^ cf. G. Bready. Life and Times of John Wesley, and George, op, cit. The whole
affair seems to have been managed badly and even unscrupulously. Olandah Equiano
(or Gustavus Vassa), an “anglicized** Negro from the West Coast, relates in his
autobiography how he was appointed by the Sierra Leone committee as commissary
of provisions and stores for the Black Poor. The Government had ordered all necess-
aries for 750 persons to be provided, but they were never bought. The passengers
were also deprived of beds, etc. He informed the Commissioners of the Navy regarding
the fraudulent behaviour of their agent, but his own dismissal was procured by some
one in the city, who also secured passages for certain people who were not entitled
to them. Equiano sent in a bill for expenses of £32 4s. — and wages owing to him, and
received ;£50 some months later, i.e. £18 for four months* service, which, it is clear,
he thought scarcely a fair remuneration, (cf. The Life of Olandah Equiano, or Gustavus
Vassa, written by himself.)

^ George, op, cit,

^ The missionary attitude towards them was that they were utterly depraved and
in a pitiful condition. “They are practically and abominably used. They are a prey
to each other, and to the rapacious poor, as well as the most abandoned of our fellow-

i86

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

with the Directors of the East India Company as to who should
be responsible for their maintenance, and during it the Lascars
became completely destitute. Their miseries did not attract
public attention until 1814. Attempts were made to teach them
English and to convert them to Christianity. In 1814, an Act
was passed compelling the Company to provide food, clothing,
and other necessary accommodation for Asiatic sailors, and a
Parliamentary Committee was appointed to consider the Act,
and report what future regulations were necessary.

The Committee made a surprise visit to the barracks where the
Lascars were housed. They reported that at certain times of the
year these received from 1,000 to 1,100 men, which meant great
overcrowding. Even when not overcrowded they were very dirty,
there was no bedding or furniture, no fireplaces, and the men
had only a blanket apiece. There was no accommodation for the
sick.^ This seems to have been the first attempt of the Govern-
ment to exercise any sort of control over housing conditions, and
the cellars of St, Giles were probably far worse than the barracks
of the Lascars. The Lascars, however, were an imperial obliga-
tion, and the Government’s relations with the East India
Company gave it a basis for action.

12. The First Coloured “Students” come to Britain

After the “liberation” of the slaves in this country, historical
references to Negroes in England in the succeeding century
are very few. Before passing on, however, it is necessary to men-
tion briefly another class of Negro in 18th-century England,
whose presence was significant, though they were much fewer
in number. These were the sons of chiefs and notables of African

countrymen. They have none or scarcely any who will associate with them but
prostitutes and no house that will receive them except the public house and the
apartments of the abandoned. They are strangers in a strange land and demand our
hospitality.** In 1814, and previously, the number coming annually to England
was about 2,500, and it was expected that for the future the number would be doubled.
In 1810, it was estimated that about 130 died yearly. The East India Company
quartered them in barracks in Ratcliffe Highway, paying in 1814, ten shillings a week
for their board and lodging to a contractor, (cf., George, op. cit.)

^ It was said that if beds were provided, the lascars sold them, and that there were
stoves in winter. The buildings for Chinese were also inspected, at a time when there
were few in London, though on the arrival of the China ships there were a great many.
These places were much more clean and airy than the barracks of the lascars (George,
op. cit.).

I Goo A.D. TO THE PRESENT DAY 1 87

tribes in the neighbourhood of British mercantile settlements on
the African Coast. The earliest record of their arrival is at the
beginning of the i8th century.^ Some of them were sent over
by missionaries to be educated,^ but most came at the expense
of the traders, more particularly the Africa Company, or were
proteges of the commanders of ships.

Every encouragement was given to this practice by the
merchants concerned: it secured hostages for their own security,
and smoothed the way to more friendly business relations with
their Coastal clients.® In 1788, it is said, there were about fifty
mulattoes and Negro children in London and the neighbourhood

^ Robert Davis, a person of mixed blood, went to England for education in 1710,
and contracted to serve with the African Company for five years at any station as an
interpreter, (cf. H. A. Wyndham, The Atlantic and Slavery^ O.U.P., 1935.)

* cf. Wyndham, op. cit. “In 1710, the Rev. John Jameson, who was travelling
as the chaplain of a ship, observed ‘the dismal state of religion’ at Cape Coast Castle,
and expressed the opinion that a well qualified school would instil good principle
into the young mulattos, and even some of the Blacks, and would thereby serve the
(African) Company’s interests.” The sons of prominent caboceers were sent to
England for the purpose. Later, in 1751, a clergyman sent by the S.P.G. to the Gk)ld
Coast as chaplain for four years at Cape Coast Castle, sent home three native boys
to be educated in a school at Islington. One of these youths, named Quaque, studi^
for Holy Orders, and after ordination at Oxford, returned to be chaplain at Cape
Coast Castle for more than fifty years, ‘but without producing any good effect*.
Apparently he retained ‘some confidence in the power of the fetish to the last, and
mixed his former superstition with the gospel’ (cf. The African Cry, 1842, pp. 91-2).

During his career, the Rev. Quaque had charge, also, of an early attempt on the
Gold Coast to educate the mulatto population around the forts under the auspices
of the Torridzonian Society. Though the subjects of education were “the first rudi-
ments of the Christian religion, reading and writing”, the clothing of the scholars
seems to have been planned in far greater detail than the curriculum. It comprised
a uniform and badge which would outvie the uniform of a modern public school, a
blue jacket with red cuffs and cape, trousers, black cravat and hat, and on the jacket
a badge “T.Z.S.” (cf. E. C. Martin, “Early Educational Experiments on the Gold
Coast”, J.A.S., 23, 1923/4, pp, 294-98).

® cf. Memoirs of Captain Crow, p. 300. Note also Wyndham, op. cit., chapter 3.
“Trading on the Coast;” in particular, pp. 59-67. “The trading, which was the main
object of Western enterprise in Africa, depended upon the good will of the coastal
chiefs; nor were the Europeans able to rely on force to secure it.”

They were at the mercy of local chiefs and their agents and representatives. “The
King of Barsally treated the whites no better than he did his own subjects. He took
possession of an English factor’s bed, got drunk on his brandy, and held him down
while his pockets were searched for the storehouse key. One of the King’s brothers
spouted water from his mouth into the factor’s face. The Royal African Company
of England was content to instruct its agents ‘to endeavour to live in all friendship with
them’, or ‘to hold frequent palavers with the Kings and the Great Men of the Country,
and keep up a good correspondence with them, ingratiating yourself by such prudent
methods as may neither lessen your own nor their character.’ Masters of vessels
were warned ‘never wilfully to wrong or abuse any of the Natives, and if any differ-
ences happen, to endeavour an amicable accommodation rather than use force.*
The Act of Parliament constituting the Company of Merchants trading in Africa
imposed a penalty of ;Cioo oh masters of vessels who committed acts of violence.
The Company was always ready to put the blame for any disputes on to the Europeans.
Its attitude was that ‘as no remedy can be applied to prevent the ill behaviour of the

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

1 88

under instruction, and that number was exceeded at an earlier
date. ^ Education seems to have been confined to reading, writing
and a little arithmetic, and was possibly rather secondary to the
main object, from the Company’s standpoint, of fostering friendly
relations and further opportunities for business. The proteges
were treated with considerable deference, and much trouble
and expense were spent in entertaining them and making them
feel at home. ^ Students continued to arrive, but by the end of the

Natives without running the risk of a quarrel, we depend entirely upon your conduct
to use such methods as shall be thought most prudent in any conjunctions that may
happen.* Where no means of retaliation were available, it was useless to recommend
them.

‘‘Factors, agents, or supercargoes, who were ‘too hasty and passionate* had to be
removed if the Natives refused to trade with them, or to sell them supplies.**

^ Crow, op, cit,, p. 299.

* In a letter to the Governor of the Gk)ld Coast (1753), the African Committee in
London wrote that: “The Hostages brought over by Captain Cockburn and Anima*s
son who came here with that Gentleman, we shall educate properly, and if possible,
by our Behaviour, secure them warmly in our Interest.*’ Some of the articles ordered
and accounts rendered testify to the sincerity of the Committee’s professions.

“12 Ruffled shirts, i Blue Coat and Breeches for each lined with Silver, and
Silver Buttons

1 Scarlet Cloth Waistcoat for each trimmed with silver

2 Frocks and Breeches

2 Scarlet worsted Waistcoats
2 Silver laced Hats
2 Bag Wigs

8 Pairs of White Stockings
4 Pairs of worsted Stockings
8 Pairs of Pumps
2 Pairs of strong Shoes
2 Pairs of Silver Buckles.*’

There are also the following accounts:

“Capt. George Cockburn account up to July 22nd, 1754 . . £79 : 4 : i

Rev. Mr. John Moore, Board, Schooling and necessaries . . : 8 : 6

Mr. Richard Walters, for Board, Nursing, etc. . . . £17:11:-

Mr. Thomas Thornley, Apothecary, for Physick for Mr. Sackee

in the Small Pox . . . . . . . .£2:4:2

Mr. Thomas Thornlcy’s Bill for Doctor’s Fees and Physick for

Mr. Aqua in the Small Pox . . . . . . £18 : 5 : 8

Mr. Peregrine Custs’ for two suits of clothes for the Two Gentlemen £14:10 : -

. . . .” etc.

(cf. “Negroes in England in the Eighteenth Century,** Notes and Queries^ loth March,
1928, Maj. J. J. Crookes, pp. I73-4-)

The “Two Black Gentlemen” were eventually despatched home, and drove down
to Plymouth in the same coach as the wife of the captain of the ship. Their berths cost
the Company of Merchants Trading to Africa £50. Other bills for their expenses at
Plymouth before the ship sailed for diet and for “check shirts” came to £30; but
the Company refused to be responsible for two bureaux, which the “two blacke
gentlemen had bespoke**, and which the captain refused to put on board. The
Company found it necessary to apologize for the embarrassments the two had caused
him and agreed with him that they should not be allowed any wines at Madeira.
Finally, the Governor of Cape Coast Castle was informed that the cost of educating
them, and sending them back to Africa, had amounted to over £600, and he was
instructed to send the Company no more black gentlemen unless he found it absolutely
necessary for the benefit of the trade, (cf. Wyndham, op, cit,, pp. 21-33.)

l600 A.D. TO THE PRESENT DAY 1 89

century the motivation had become philanthropic rather than
commercial and arose largely from the Sierra Leone enterprise
and expedition. One benevolent result was the formation, in
1801, of a Society for the education of Africans.

13. Young Naimbanna

The Temne paramount chief, Naimbanna, who had shown
himself very friendly towards the settlement, was strongly im-
pressed by the advantages of a European education, and decided
to secure them for his sons. One of them he sent to France for
instruction, and the eldest he consigned to Mr. Falconbridge,
the Sierra Leone Company’s agent. The party reached England
in 1791, and the young man was first received and entertained
in the house of Henry Thornton, afterwards Governor of the
Bank, and then entrusted, at the latter’s suggestion, for educational
purposes to a clergyman in Kent. Young Naimbanna was
baptized by the name of Henry Granville, after the Christian
names of his sponsors, Thornton and Sharp. He worked hard,
and was given an excellent report by the two clerical tutors, who
successively supervised his studies and conduct. ^ In the second
year of his education, news of the death of his father prompted
young Naimbanna to return home, but he died of fever within a
few hours of landing at Sierra Leone.

The experiment, however, was continued. It was hoped that
the education in England of the African chiefs would help in
cementing a friendly union between the people of Britain and
“the European colony of freedom”, and that as a result, the
returning students would play their part in introducing the

^ cf. Hoar, op, cit., pp. 365-70. “A desire of knowledge was the predominant
feature in his character; he would continually urge his instructors to prolong the time
of their reading together. He was forward in declaring his obligations to every one
who would assist him in the acquisition of useful learning: he would express regret
if he had been led into company anywhere the time had passed away without improve-
ment; and when it happened that he was left entirely to himself, he would employ
not less than eight or ten hours of the day in reading. Though the disadvantages
arising from the long neglect of his mental faculties were apparent, he showed signs
of a very good natural sense; he had also a faculty at distinguishing characters; and,
his mind, as might naturally be expected, was ready to receive impressions from those
persons of whom he had conceived a good opinion. He had few advantages of person,
but he was uncommonly pleasing in his behaviour, showing much natural courtesy
and even delicacy of manners: he was also of a kind and affectionate disposition”
{ibid. Report, 1794).

I go NEGROES IN BRITAIN

“improvements of science, and the comforts of civilization into
Africa”, as well as taking an appropriate share in the development
of the colony. A further batch of young Africans, selected from
the schools of the colony, sailed from Freetown in 1799. It con-
sisted of 21 boys, mainly the sons of local chiefs, and 4 girls, and
was conducted by Zachary Macaulay, Governor of the Colony. ^
A desire to enable Africans themselves to qualify as schoolmasters
led the African Institution, a few years later, to offer free board
and lodging at the Royal Free School in Southwark for two
Africans. Two young men, liberated from slave ships, duly
arrived in 1811 and made progress in literacy beyond the expec-
tations of their sponsors. ^

14. The 19TH Century and the Development of Colonial

Contacts

A certain amount of conjecture is necessary as to the fortunes
of the Negroes left behind in England after the Sierra Leone
expedition. Many of them no doubt married and were assimil-
ated in the British population. During the earlier decades of
the succeeding century, at any rate, it is evident that they fulfilled
a regular function as coachmen and footmen in the houses of the
wealthy,® and possibly the humble nature of this and the like
roles accounts for their subsequent historical anonymity. They
had a recognized position, also, as Army bandsmen. Wearing an
embroidered Oriental dress, they played the cymbals in the
band of the Grenadier or Coldstream Guards —

^ Lascelles, op, cit,

* Sixth Report of the Directors of the African Institution. Susoo youths brought over to
England in 1808 assisted a missioner to draw up a Susoo grammar and vocabulary.
Another interesting coloured visitor to England about the same date was Captain
Paul Guffee, whose brig, which he owned himself and navigated with the help of
eight other men of colour, was consigned to Messrs. W. & R. Rathbone of Liverpool
in 181 1. Cuffee, born in 1759, in one of the Elizabeth Isles, was the son of an African
slave. Solely by diligence and personal initiative he became a successful trader and
was consulted by the African Institution as to the best means of carrying out their
benevolent projects in Africa, (cf. Crow, op. cit., p. 304-5.)

* “The negro coachman, a very portly person, with powder over his woolly
pate; the negro footman, in a brilliant livery, stately of port and stalwart of body, if
somewhat unshapely as to his nether limbs. . . .” (All the Tear Round, ubi cit.)

A correspondent of the Spectator (July, 1925), mentions that 90 years ago, i.e., in
1835, ^ Negro servant in his grandfather’s house served for some time as a footman.
The fact that he was black never seemed at all strange, and Carlo (the Negro) was
engaged to an English girl.

l600 A.D. TO THE PRESENT DAY I 9 I

“gesticulating vivaciously — ^partly of orchestral necessity, perhaps, but
partly, it must be, owing to excessive enjoyment of his situation — ^witih his
fellow performer, of similar complexion and costcune, who plays an instru-
ment that has vanished with its sable professor; a brazen structure, tree-
shaped, with bells depending from its branches.”*

There were less fortunate Negroes, also, who sold songs,
swept crossings, knitted night-caps and socks, manufactured
garden-nets; who begged for alms and sometimes thieved. The
East Indian pedlar who still trapeses round the English country-
side, an exotic and often decrepit figure with his turban and large
suitcase, was also a familiar sight at the time. Then, as to-day,
he traded in East Indian wares, chiefly paper packets containing
scented powders of aromatic and medicinal mixtures. ^

If we can accept the evidence of our late 19th-century com-
mentator, the Negro, apart from a few crossing-sweepers, had
virtually disappeared from the scene by the seventies, although

“Occasionally there is to be encountered a black bishop — a most impressive
personage. For other blacks we have only those whose complexion is obviously
artificial — who are lamp blacks rather than real blacks. Ethopian serenaders
they call themselves; singing to the accompaniment of obstreperous instru-
ments, now ultra-sentimental ditties, and now songs that affect a nonsensical
jocosity. Of these blacks we have certainly enough, perhaps even more than
enough.”*

More, perhaps, should be said of Negroes as seafarers, and
of the part played by them as able-bodied seamen and as stewards
on the sailing ships of the igth century. Sometimes, before the
abolition of slavery in America, they were impounded by the
local authorities when their ships put into such ports as Charleston
in the American South. Generally, the exchanges which ensued
between the British Consul and the local governments touching
the rights of a British subject, appear to have been settled in
favour of the Negroes concerned.^

^ All the Tear Round, ubi cit.

* ibid. ® ibid,

* The American authorities feared that the presence of free Negroes ashore
“might engender a contagion of liberty among their slaves’*. Several disputes of a
similar kind arose out of the presence of British ships in the waters of slave-holding
countries. Slaves would sometimes swim out to a British warship, and claim their
freedom on reaching her deck. The tradition that to stand on the deck of a British
man-of-war was to stand on a bit of England was upheld by Mr. Justice Best in a case
when a slave-owner of Florida (then a Spanish possession) sued the captain for the
delivery of some slaves {Chambers' Journal, ubi cit.). In 1851, 37 British subjects were
seized and imprisoned. A typical example was a Glasgow vessel which on her return
voyage to Jamaica was driven into Charleston by stress of weather. One of the crew,
of African descent, was immediately seized and conveyed to jail. The British consul
suggested a modification of the laws simply restricting coloured persons to tlbci?
yewl3* Anti-Slaver^ Reporter, 18^1.)

92

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

By the close of the century Britain had acquired considerable
territories over a large part of Africa. Prompted largely by the
efforts of the missionaries, incentives towards an English education
spread widely among the growing Europeanized populations of
the West Coast, and those who could afford it sent their sons to
England to study. White planters in the West Indies had for
some time been in the habit of educating their mulatto children
in Britain. As the children of wealthy West Indian planters,
mulatto West Indian young women were frequently sent to
England in the early days of the 19th century to be educated
and “finished”. Jane Austen in Sanditon (published 1817),
describes one of these heiresses as the most important and precious
member of a boarding-school from the point of view of its pro-
prietor. In this respect the University of Durham has had a
lengthy connection with both the West Indies and West Africa.
Codrington College in Barbados was affiliated to the University
in the Easter Term, 1875, and Fourah Bay, Sierra Leone the
next year.^ To amplify the supply of native missionaries an
African Training Institute was established at Colwyn Bay in
1902.2

Increasing numbers of African students came over after
the turn of the century, and before the First World war appear
to have been in attendance mainly at London University,
although a few, apparently, studied at Cambridge and other
universities, including Liverpool. ® The great majority now
studied medicine or law rather than theology, but on returning
to Africa found that, in the first-mentioned subject at any rate,
they were not considered by the Administration as on a par in

^ The first students of Codrington College were registered for courses in Arts,
and in 1877 the first registration in Theology was made. The first students of
Fourah Bay College were registered in February 1885, and were for courses
in Theology and Arts. Incidentally, most African students who take Durham
degrees take them in their own country (communic. Acting Registrar of Durham
University).

^ vol. 3, 1903/4, pp. 104-6. Each student was given an ordinary course

of English school training, and special attention to his Scripture education. He was
also taught some useful trade or profession to enable him to earn a livelihood and to
teach “his heathen brethren” some handicraft like Printing, Tailoring, Carpentry,
etc. The J.A.S. supplies a photograph of the Staff and students.

^ cf. Anti-Slavery Reporter^ At Liverpool, the earliest entry of students from

the British West Indies, or from West Africa, dates from the year 1909 (commun.
Registrar, Liverpool University). Trinity College, Dublin, to-day receives a large
proportion of West African students reading medicine in the British Isles, but so far
as can be ascertained, the first Negroes did not enter the College until 1928 (commun#
Registrar, Trinity College, Dublin).

I Goo A.D. TO THE PRESENT PAY 1 93

professional capacity with European practitioners. Nor, it was
alleged, did they possess the confidence of European patients on
the Coast. ^ In England, it appears as if the Negro students
were left to live their lives somewhat apart, even from the student
class, and some, it seems, sought companionship and consolation
in less desirable directions. In some universities — Cambridge
is cited as a case — prejudice against them was shown; although
in this respect Indians were apparently even less popular. In
London they were regarded with tolerance, but also with apathy.
With a view to rectifying some of these disabilities a meeting of
persons interested in the welfare of Africans was called in London
in July 1913, and the question of hospitality was discussed. The
gathering was well attended, and both the late Sir Harry Johnston,
one-time Governor of Sierra Leone, and the late Sir John (then
Mr.) Harris took a prominent part in it. The former, in particular,
stressed the imperial implications of treating Africans in London in
a friendly manner. ^

Since that day a number of organizations catering partly
or wholly for coloured visitors, and students in particular, have
come into being in London. They include such bodies as the
East and West Friendship Council, The League of Coloured
Peoples, the West African Students’ Union, the Victoria League,
etc. As a more recent development the Colonial Office has
instituted a special department to supervise the welfare and look
after the interests of Colonial people in Great Britain. Its hostels
in Earls Court and elsewhere provide accommodation for

^ Anti-Slavery Reporter, op. cit.

* ibid. Johnston’s speech is reported as follows: “But if in London we are not
actively disagreeable to the negro who comes here, we do not — proportionately with
the imperial importance of London — go out of our way to attract hither the negro
for his education; to provide him, even, with the means of quickly and cheaply
getting that education he wants, and to make the conditions of his stay as profitable
to him mentally and as agreeable to him socially as I am sure we should if we were
really an imperial people. Of course, if we prefer to be little Englanders and imagine
ourselves the only race worth considering in the world, then it is different. But if
we are going to maintain this mighty Empire that we have sketched out — ... if
we are to maintain this Empire on such lines that all our intelligent fellow-subjects
will belong to it of their own free will; then we must minister to their advanced
education and make the great educational centres of Great Britain attractive to the
coloured peoples who wish to come here to perfect their knowledge. If we do not
accomplish this, it will mean that . . . they will go to France and to Germany.
Germany — quite rightly from her point of view — is doing all she can at the present
time to attract the backward races to her centres of education, and I think it scarcely
ever arises that a coloured man in Germany receives anything but kind, sympathetic
and courteous treatment. I wish I could say the same about my own experience of
Great Britain, but it is not so. . , /*

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

194

Colonial visitors.^ ‘The West African Students’ Union operates
similarly on a smaller scale in Camden Town on behalf of West
African students and visitors.

It was the war of 1914-1918, however, which reintroduced
the Negro into England in some numbers. Several thousands
of coloured labourers were brought over to do work which would
free Englishmen for combatant service. They worked in munition
factories, in labour battalions, and also filled the places of many
white merchant seamen who were transferred to the Royal Navy.
As the situation arising out of this immigration has been dealt with
in detail in an earlier chapter, it will suffice here merely to say that
considerable objections were voiced against their arrival by the
labour unions. It was feared that the idea of coloured immigra-
tion was the prelude to a substitution of white by coloured labour
in wider fields of employment and to a consequent lowering of
the wages and standard of living of the working classes.

CHAPTER 8

THE DEVELOPMENT OF ENGLISH RACIAL
ATTITUDES

I . Early Liberalism

Negroes appear to have formed a part, albeit a small one,
of the population of Great Britain for rather more than three
hundred years. In the relative absence of contemporary attempts
at a sociological assessment of English people’s attitudes towards
them, it is as well to avoid dogmatic conclusions on this question.
From a number of historical sources, more particularly the
ramifications and implications of the Slave Trade, from various
side-references and comments, and from occasional literary

^ A previous Colonial Office venture in the form of a hostel was Aggrey House in
Doughty Street, London, W.G.2. It was instituted in 1934 and met with considerable
hostility, more particularly on the part of West Africans, on the ground that it was
intended and used as a means of spying on the political views and activities of Colonial
students. In a pamphlet issued by the West African Students’ Union it was termed a
“Government Plan for the Control of African Students in Great Britain”, cf. “W.A.
S.U. Protests”. Suspicion about Colonial Office activities in these ai?id other respects
k still somewhat marked among Colomal Students.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF ENGLISH RACIAL ATTITUDES 1 95

material wherein the Negro appears as a character, it is possible,
nevertheless, to infer a good deal. The main impression so
gained is that there was little or no colour prejudice in England
in the modern sense of the expression until at least the beginning
of, and perhaps quite well on in, the 19th century. Dramatic
personations of the black man, and of Othello in particular, are
sometimes accepted as a reasonable criterion in the matter; but
how far they actually are so is by no means certain. No doubt,
as most reputable modern critics suggest, Shakespeare intended
the Moorish prince to be regarded as an African Negro rather
than as a lighter- or even darker-skinned Moor. ^ This has been
held to indicate racial tolerance on the part of the Elizabethan
audience, particularly since the whole situation of the Othello-
Desdemona marriage, as an eminent American critic puts it,

“is presented as in no way ‘unnatural’, whether in itself or in the eyes of the
world, and Othello neither has aspirations to ally himself with the higher
race, nor suffers through racial intolerance or prejudice. He is happy to marry
Desdemona, but not because she is a white woman or the daughter of a
magnihco. As he speaks of his blackness as the cause of Desdemona’s unfaith-
fulness but once — because lago urged it — and turns immediately to other
causes — his unpolished manners and his age. . .

It is, perhaps, another question whether we are entitled in any
sense to treat Othello as a social drama of the Ibsen school, and
draw as a logical conclusion that the Elizabethans were entirely
lacking in colour sensibility. Other critics have argued differently
— that the introduction of a black character in this particular
role was made merely as a deliberate contrast with the whites,

^ See, for example, Othello (Arden Shakespeare).

* cf. E. E. Stoll, Othello: An historical and comparative study, Univ. Miss. Studies in
Lang, and Lit., No. 2, 1915. Stoll goes on to quote a well-known passage as bearing
out this latter point:

“Haply, for I am black
And have not those soft parts of conversation
That chamberers have; or, for I am declined
Into the vale of years.”

Stoll also claims that the only character shocked by the union is Brabantio: lago
dares to cast aspersions upon it only in his presence, Othello’s and Roderigo’s. Like
everyone else, the Duke and Senate at the beginning, and Lodovico and Gratiano
at the end, show the Moor only respect and admiration, and treat the marriage itself
as above reproach. In concluding the deliberations the Duke remarks
“If virtue no delighted beauty lack
Your son-in-law is far more fair than black.”

When Lodovico sees Othello strike his wife, he has nothing to say against marrying
Moors and strangers, but is simply amazed that this can be
“the noble Moor whom our full Senate
Call all-in-all sufficient,”
thinks his wits must not be safe, and is “sorry”.

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

196

and for aesthetic and dramatic reasons.^ Neglecting, however,
whatever sociological significance may be adduced from this
interesting and controversial question, it is nevertheless apparent
that actors with few exceptions have played the part as a Moor,
and not as a Negro, presumably because audiences and sensitive
readers found the idea of marital union with the latter too
revolting. ^

Whatever may have been the psychological concomitants of
the Negro’s presence in England in Elizabethan and Restoration
times, the practical issue is not in doubt. With relatively few
exceptions, up to 1772, and in specific cases even later, the Negro
was to all intents and purposes a commodity on the market,*^ a

^ Compare, for example, the views of a writer in Blackwood's Magazine, vol. 67,
1850, p. 484, who admits that the traditions of the stage made Othello jet black, but
does not consider that the Elizabethan age was capable of drawing “fine ethnological
distinctions’* between a “moor” and the “Blackamoor” and a “Negro”. The marriage
itself is not meant as a piece of realism, but as a means of emphasizing the dramatic
and poetic symbolism of the contrast.

“In life you cannot bear that the White woman shall marry the Black man.
You could not bear that an English Lady Desdemona — Lady Blanche Howard —
should — under any imaginable greatness — marry General Toussaint or the
Duke of Marmalade. Your senses revolt with offence and loathing. But on the
Stage some consciousness that everything is not literally meant as it seems — that
symbols of humanity, and not actual men and women, are before you — saves the
Play.”

In comment on this view Dr. Stoll might reasonably reply that it is the writer
himself who projects a personal or social prejudice of his day on to the England of
Shakespeare’s time.

* This is evidently the conclusion of the editors of the Arden Shakespeare, who
comment on the point in a footnote to the line “Run from her guardage to the sooty
bosom of such a thing as thou” {op, ciL, p. 26). As mentioned in the last chapter
Garrick, apparently, was one who took the Negro view over the playing of Othello,
and is said to have been a failure for that reason. But it is just possible that he met
with disapproval and criticism less from prejudice as such, than from the sheer social
inconsistency of such a portrayal with the established and servile status of the Negro
serving-boy or body servant of the day. Incidentally, it appears that the actor Kean
first substituted, and Coleridge endeavoured to justify, the tawny hue of the light-
brown Moor of Mauritania, which appears to be followed by most modern produc-
tions. There are, of course, notable exceptions, one being a recent performance by
the Cambridge Marlowe Society.

® As indicated later, it is no doubt necessary to make some fairly definite distinc-
tion between the views in this matter of those actually engaged in the Trade and of the
general public. Nevertheless, the prevailing idea that Negro slaves were mere articles
of commerce seems to be illustrated quite clearly in the case of the slave ship “Zong”
(1781) when 130 slaves were jettisoned by the captain ostensibly on the plea that he
had run out of water. He tried to put the loss of the sick slaves upon the insurance
company. The law took its course, but the trial was not for murder. It took the form
of an action between the insurance company and the ship-owner to decide whether
the throwing overboard of the slaves was a genuine act of jettison, for which the
company would have to pay, or a fraud on the policy, in which case the company
would escape payment (Hoar, op, cit., p. 245). The Memoirs continue: —

“A high court of English judicature had heard one of the great organs of the
land avow the case, in which he asserted that ^so far from the guilt of anything like a

THE DEVELOPMENT OF ENGLISH RACIAL ATTITUDES 1 97

form of property like a horse or a barrel of wine, worth twelve,
or thirty, or fifty pounds sterling according to his “utility”.
It is significant, perhaps, that in preparing his meticulous case
against Negro slavery, Granville Sharp went to the extent of
obtaining scientific opinion as to whether the black man was a
human being. ^ He had no personal doubts on the subject when
he wrote to Jacob Bryant that:

“I am far from having any particular esteem for the Negroes; but as I
think myself obliged to consider them as men, I am certainly obliged also to
use my best endeavours to prevent their being treated as beasts by our un-
christian countrymen, who deny them the privileges of human nature, and to
exercise their own brutality, will scarcely allow that Negroes are human beings.
The tracing of their descent, therefore, is a point of some consequence to the
subject on which I am now engaged, for their defence.”*

Yet during the same period, i.e. before 1772, that very many
English people, both men and women, were kindly disposed
towards the Negro is no less clear. As masters they treated him
with consideration; in some cases they paid him wages, arranged
for him to be educated, had him taught crafts and trades, and
bequeathed him money and property in their wills. Some of the
leading authors and poets of the day wrote pamphlets and
satirical poems on his behalf. Others subscribed money for his

murderous acV in casting one hundred and thirty-three living and unoffending
creatures into the sea, to perish there; so far from ‘ any shew or suggestion of cruelty\
there was not even ‘<z surmise of impropriety in the transaction*; and that, to bring
a charge of murder against those who had acted this part of uncontrolled power,
into an English court of law, ‘would argue nothing less than madness* in him
who brought it thither.**

(The expressions in italics were also used on this occasion by the Solicitor-General,
who was employed for the owners.)

^ cf. Hoar, op. cit.

“It is surprising, and to posterity will appear hardly credible, that the force
of prejudice was so great in the enlightened nations of Europe at the time of these
events that the advocate of an oppressed race, separated from those nations only
by the sea, and distinguished from them only be a darker tinge of skin, thought
it requisite to institute a regular inquiry, whether the natives of Africa were men —
so unwilling was their unwearied champion to leave in the field the smallest
point against them unassailed.’*

^ Ibid., p. 94. There were several serious attempts at the time to prove that
Negroes were a different species of man; that they were wanting in the moral sense,
and perceived moral sensations only as simple ideas. Mr. Long, in his History of
Jamaica, published in three volumes in 1774, wrote:

“We cannot pronounce them unsusceptible of civilisation, since even apes have
been taught to eat, drink, repose and dress like men; But of all the human species
hitherto discovered, their natural baseness of mind seems to afford the least hope of
their being (except by miraculous interposition of Divine Providence) so far
refined as to think as well as act like men, . . .**

“I do not think that an Orang Outang husband would be any dishonour to
an Hottentot female.**

(Quoted from the appendix to the Memoirs, Granville Sharp’s note on these writings.)

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

198

succour against predatory slave-owners and for his defence in
the courts.^ It is no less obvious that the many slaves who
absconded would have found neither mercy nor shelter had they
not possessed a host of English sympathisers. Lord Mansfield’s
own reluctance to come to judgment over Somersett seems to have
been. prompted not by prejudice against Negroes, but rather by
desire not to upset with the established order of things.^ His
sentiments may be described as paternalistic, and paternal
attitudes towards the British Negro seem to have been the rule
rather than the exception until well on in the succeeding century.
It was poverty and the wrong connections, rather than the wrong
colour, which accounted for the Negro’s lowly place in society
and the prejudice shown against him.^ In the wider and more
important ramifications of the Slave Trade it is easy to overlook
this point. The Slave Trade and the holding of plantation Negroes
abroad, and the treatment of individual Negroes in England are
not necessarily the same thing, however strongly economic
considerations may have favoured the former.^ Moreover,

^ Some of Sharp’s work was done with the aid of funds supplied by a Mrs. Bankes,
and other persons supplied funds for a similar purpose.

* Dunning, who appeared on the opposite side against the Negro, complained
that it was his misfortune to address an audience, “much the greater part of which,

I apprehend, wish to find me in the wrong” (Hoar, op. cit., p. 89).

® Discussing the historical background of white-coloured contacts in South Africa
(at about the end of the 17th century), MacCrone seems to come to a fairly similar
conclusion regarding the easier relations between a white and a coloured person, and
his words are worth quoting at some length: —

“The distinction l^etween black free burgher and free black, if it ever existed,
could have little or no social significance, for even in official documents the two
designations were sometimes applied to the same person. . . . What is significant,
however, from our point of view, is that at this period the social distance between
the class of person under consideration and the Europeans was not nearly so
great as it afterwards became. Social contacts between white and black were
evidently more free and easy and the social attitude of the former more tolerant of
the latter. The black man of this class had not yet ‘lost caste’ in the eyes of the white
man, and persons of colour were not then excluded by an impassable psychological
barrier from enjoying some sort of status as swart vry burghers or vry swarten within
the framework of the European community.”

(I. D. MacCrone, Race Attitudes in South Africa, O.U.P., 1937, p. 73.)

^ cf. C. M. Macinnes, England and the Slave Trade. Macinnes summarizes popular
attitudes towards the Slave Trade as follows. Prior to 1660, though some Englishmen
profited by the slave system, the general attitude, in so far as there was one at all,
both in the colonies and at home, was one of contempt. Englishmen in the 17th
century held slavery in detestation and considered it to be inconsistent with their free
traditions and the spirit of their constitution. This attitude changed entirely during
the latter years of the century. For over a hundred years after the Restoration both
the slave trade and the system of colonial slavery were accepted by the majority of
Englishmen as necessary and inevitable for English mercantile prosperity. A dis-
cernible change in public opinion tending towards philanthropy began about the
time of the American Revolution.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF ENGLISH RACIAL ATTITUDES 1 99

there was the curious paradox, arising partly out of the circum-
stances of the Trade itself, whereby it was highly necessary
to gain and to retain the friendship of certain Negroes, even if
the relationship was a purely business one. ^

2. Eminent 18th-Century Negroes

There is plenty of evidence that individual Negroes in England
won respect and a position for themselves on their own merits.
Coloured men who acquired wealth and patronage were received
without reservation in the very highest circles. A French mulatto,
the Chevalier Georges de St. Georges, son of the Marquis de
Langey and a Negro slave, was a personal friend of the Prince of
Wales, afterwards George IV, and as the champion swordsman
of his day, and an accomplished rider, skater and violinist, once
set the fashion in the English as well as the French courts.^
George I is said to have brought two Negro favourites with him
from Germany, Mustapha and Mahomet, who enjoyed such
high favour that some of the great English lords were jealous of
them.® Another Negro, Ignatius Sancho, was a well-known
London character. His portrait was painted by Gainsborough,
and engraved by Bartolozzi. ^ Indeed, his career affords such a
striking illustration of the paradoxical position of the man of
colour in the i8th century that it is worth relating in some detail.

Sancho was born in 1729 on board a slave ship, a few days
out from the Guinea coast for the Spanish West Indies, and was
baptized at Cartagena. His mother died soon afterwards, and
his father committed suicide. When he was two years old, his
master presented him to three maiden sisters at Greenwich, who
took the view that education was dangerous to an obedient
disposition and kept him in ignorance. But the boy’s intelligent
appearance attracted the attention of the Duke of Montagu, and

^ The difficulties of trading with the West Coast are mentioned in an extensive
footnote in the last chapter, and may be examined in detail in H. A. Wyndham,
The Atlantic and Slavery.

*J. A. Rogers, “The American Negro in Europe’*, May 1930, quoted in Negro
Tear Book^ pp. 374-6.

* J. A. Rogers, The Crisis, Feb. 1940.

George, op. cit. The subsequent notes on Ignatius Sancho are taken from Letters
{and Memoks) of the late Ignatius Sancho^ an African. Joseph Jekyll (1803).

200

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

as a result of the acquaintance Sancho learned to read and write.
He became butler to the Montagu family, and subsequently
received from the old Duchess in her will the sum of and an
annuity of ^(^30. During the time of his service and until his
own death, Sancho showed himself a person of considerable and
artistic versatility. He not only studied, but wrote music and
poetry, and his verses were published in 1803. He was also
regarded as something of an expert on painting, and was visited
by Mortimer. Sancho was particularly interested in the theatre;
he not only wrote two stage pieces, but tried his hand at the parts
of Othello and Oroonoko, and, it is said, once spent his last
shilling to see Garrick in Richard at Drury Lane. Constitutional
corpulence and repeated attacks of gout obliged him to retire
from the Montagu household in 1773 to run a grocer’s shop with
his wife, a West Indian woman, who bore him six children.

Sancho’s epistolary efforts ^ provide an indication of the width
of his interests, philanthropic and literary, and of the friendly
relations which were possible between a Negro and some of the
most illustrious English men of the day, including Garrick and
Sterne. The extent of his popularity is evident in the fact that
on his death, in 1 780, over one thousand persons, amongst them
many members of the nobility and gentry, subscribed to have a

^ One of Sancho’s letters written to an English acquaintance recommending the
qualifications of a coloured friend is an example of the Negro’s facile style:

August 12 1775

“Dear Sir,

If I knew a better man than yourself — you wou’d not have had this applica-
tion — ^which is on behalf of a merry — chirping — white tooth’d — clean — tight —
and light little fellow; — ^with a wooly pate — and face as dark as your humble;
Guincy bom and French bred — the sulky gloom of Africa dispelled by Gallic
vivacity — and that softened again with English sedateness — a rare fellow! —
rides well — and can look upon a couple of horses — dresses hair in the present
taste — ^shaves light — and understands something of the arrangement of a table
and sideboard; — his present master will authenticate him a decent character —
he leaves him at his own (Blacky’s request) : — he has served him for three years —
and, like Teague, would be glad of a good master — if any good master would be
glad of him. — As I believe you associate chiefly with good-hearted folks — it is
possible your interest may be of service to him. — I like the rogue’s looks, or a
similarity of colour should not have induced me to recommend him — Excuse
this little scrawl from your friend, etc.

Ign. Sancho.”

In 1776 Sancho wrote to Sterne and asked him to give some “publicity” in his writ-
ings to the plight of the West Indian negroes, and received a friendly reply. Sancho
also took a keen interest in public affairs. There are other letters addressed to the
Press, and signed “Africanus”, of a date subsequent to the Mansfield judgment, on
matters of national and social policy, such as the raising of public funds, and a proposal
for setting up a standing force of 20,000 seamen, and navigation schools in place of
pressing men into the Navy. Op, ciL, pp. 70-71.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF ENGLISH RACIAL ATTITUDES 201

collection of his letters published. “Such was the man,” remarks
his biographer, Joseph Jekyll, M.P.,

“whose species philosophers and anatomists have endeavoured to degrade
as a deterioration of the human; and such was the man whom Fuller, with a
benevolence and quaintness of phrase peculiarly his own, accounted
‘God’s Image, though cut in Ebony’.” ^

It is possible that there were other Negroes with careers as
distinguished, but whom the historian has left virtually un-
recorded.^ It seems evident that until at least well on in the

1 Ibid.

^ Another Negro with a less distinguished but interesting career was Olandah
Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa (mentioned in the last chapter) . He was taken on board
a man of war off the African coast and sailed in Admiral Boscawen’s fleet as servant
to a naval lieutenant. He was baptized in St. Margaret’s Church, Westminster, in
1 759, and after varied experiences as a powder monkey, captain’s steward, and trader
in the West Indies, was recommended by Governor Macnamara and others to the
Bishop of London as a missionary on the West Coast. The Bishop received him “with
much condescension and politeness; but, from some certain scruples of delicacy,
declined to ordain me”. Subsequently he was appointed by the Sierra Leone Com-
mittee as commissary on their behalf, and in 1 788 presented the Queen with a petition
on behalf of Africans in the West Indies.

A lively interest and sympathy with less fortunate members of their race seems,
in fact, to be quite a characteristic of educated Negroes of whom we have any in-
dividual record during the period under review. His tutors’ report on young Naim-
banna, for example, indicates both a spirit of patriotism and a very definite sense of
racial consciousness, such as characterises nationalistic Africans of the present day:

“He was quick in all his feelings, and his temper was occasionally warm;
some degree of jealousy also entering into his character; in particular, he was
indisposed to answer questions put to him by strangers concerning the state
of his own country; for he was apt to suspect that they meant to draw comparisons
unfavourable to its character; and he would therefore, on such occasions, often
turn the conversation by remarking that a country so unfavourably circum-
stanced as Sierra Leone had hitherto been, was not to be supposed capable of
having made any attainments worthy of conversation in Great Britain (3). . . .

“The name of a person having been mentioned in his presence, who was
understood by him to have publicly asserted something very degrading to the
general character of Africans, he broke out into violent and vindictive language.
He was immediately reminded of the Christian duty of forgiving his enemies;
upon which he answered nearly in the following words: — ‘If a man should rob
me of my money, I can forgive him ^ if a man should shoot at me, or try to stab
me, 1 can forgive him; if a man should sell me and all my family to a slave-ship,
so that we should pass all the rest of our days in the West Indies, I can forgive
him; but’ (added he rising from his seat with much emotion) ‘if a man takes
away the character of the people of my country, I never can forgive him.* Being
asked why he would not extend his forgiveness to those who took away the
character of the people of his country, he answered: ‘If a man should try to
kill me, or should sell me and my family for slaves, he would do an injury to as
many as he might kill or sell; but, if any one takes away the character of Black
people, that man injures Black people all over the world; and when he has once
taken away their character, there is nothing that he may not do to Black people
ever after. That man, for instance, will beat Black men, and say, “Oh, it is
only a Black man, why should I not beat him?” That man will make slaves of
Black people; for when he has taken their character, he will say, “Oh, they arc
only Black people — why should not I make them slaves?” That man will ta k
away all the people of Africa, if he can catch them; and if you ask him, “BG

202

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

1 8th century English men saw nothing extraordinary in a Negro
possessing talents equal to their own. By the end of the century,
however, the persistent arguments of the slave dealers had taken
effect so thoroughly that even the philanthropists and those most
concerned in the Negro’s welfare and moral progress shared in
the popular surprise at his intelligence. The pre-Emancipation
period, too, saw the cult of the “noble savage”.^ The voyages of
Captain Cook, Anson, and other travellers, brought specimens
of Red Indians, Eskimos and South Sea Islanders to the London
streets. They aroused a great deal of curiosity, not only on the
part of men of science and learning, but amongst the general
public, whose interest at times was somewhat naive. At the same
time, these exotic strangers seem to have been treated with
considerable courtesy, and concerned as religious people were
over their “pagan” practices and lack of Christian morals,
attitudes towards the unwitting proselytes were not unduly
patronizing. One of the best known of these “noble savages”
was Omai, a native of Ulaieta in the Society Islands, who was
brought to England in 1775 by Captain Furneaux in His Majesty’s
sloop Adventure. The indefatigable Sharp soon “perceived an
inlet opened by this means, for the diffusion of Christian light
over a new race of men”, and as a preliminary step, attempted
with his usual diligence to teach Omai to read and write English.
The record he has left of his meetings with the Polynesian and of
their conversations are a good indication of his own, and possibly
of many other Englishmen’s, tolerant if moralistic attitude
towards the aboriginal.^

why do you take away all these people?’* he will say, “Oh, they are only Black
. people — they are not like White people — why should not I take them?” That is
the reason why I cannot forgive the man who takes away the character of the
people of my country.* ** Hoar, op. cit.

^ Goupland, op. cit. Perhaps the best known representation and clearest con-
temporary conception of the “noble savage*’ has been left by Defoe in Robinson
Crusoe’s Man Friday.

* Hoar, op. cit., chapter 8, “Conversations with Omai”.

“When sitting with him at table one day after dinner, I thought it a good
opportunity to explain to him the Ten Commandments. I proceeded with tolerable
success in reciting the first six Commandments. He had nothing to object against
any of them though many explications were required before he understood all the
terms; and he freely nodded his assent. But when I recited the seventh Commandment,
‘Thou shalt not commit adultery’, he said, ‘Adultery! what? what that?*

“ ‘Not to commit adultery,’ I said, ‘is, that, if a man has got one wife, he must
not take another wife, or any other woman*. ‘Oh!*, says he, ‘two wives — very good;
three wives — very, very good.’ — ‘No, Mr. Omail’ I said, ‘not so; that would be con-
trary to the first principle of the law of nature*. — ‘First principle of the laws of nature,’
said he; ‘what that? what that?’ ‘ The first principle of the law of nature,* I said, ‘w, theU no

THE DEVELOPMENT OF ENGLISH RACIAL ATTITUDES 2O3

3. The Negro in 19th-Century Fiction

The indications are, therefore, that colour sensibility as such
was very little in evidence during the i8th century. No doubt
Negroes, in general, were thought of more as slaves and servants
than anything else, but there appears to have been no particular
aversion to meeting or mixing with a person simply on the ground
of his colour. In later years the situation is much more difficult
to gauge, despite the wide-spread enthusiasm aroused by the
Abolitionist movement. The Abolitionists, it has to be re-
membered, dealt with an idea, the freeing of slaves and Negroes,
not with an actual social situation, the question of mixing and
living alongside them. If, however, the novels of Thackeray and
Jerrold are any guide, it was the lower rather than the better-off
classes of society which were colour-conscious even so recently as a
hundred years ago. In Jerrold’s St. Giles and St. JameSy Kitty is a
servant in a noble house in which her Negro gentleman friend,
Mr. Caesar, is footman. Her friend, the muffin-maker’s wife,
hears about the attachment, and her exclamation is:

“Why bless me, she’s never going to marry a nigger. SheTl never do such
a thing.”

man must do to another person any thing that he would not like to be done to himself. And, for
example, Mr. Omai,’ said I, ‘suppose you have got a wife that you love very much;
you would not like that another man should come to love your wife.* This raised his
indignation; he put on a furious countenance, and a threatening posture, signifying
that he would kill any man that should meddle with his wife. ‘Well, Mr. Omai,* said
I, ‘suppose, then, that your wife loves you very much; she would not like that you
should love another woman; for the women have the same passions, and feelings, and
love toward the men, that we have towards the women; and we ought, therefore, to
regulate our behaviour toward them by our own feelings of what we should like and
expect of faithful love and duty from them toward ourselves.’

“This new state of the case produced a deep consideration and silence, for some
time, on the part of Mr. Omai. But he soon afterwards gave me ample proof that he
thoroughly comprehended the influence of the law of liberty, when it is applied to
regulate, by our own feelings, the proper conduct and behaviour which we owe to
other persons. There was an ink-stand on the table, with several pens in it. He took
one pen, and laid it on the table, saying, ‘there lies Lord S — * (a Nobleman with whom
he was well acquainted, and in whose family he had spent some time) ; and he then
took another pen, and laid it close by the side of the former pen, saying ‘and there
lies Miss W — ’ (who was an accomplished young woman in many respects, but un-
happily for herself, she lived in a state of adultery with that Nobleman) ; and he then
took a third pen, and placing it on the table at a considerable distance from the other
two pens, as far as his right arm could extend, and at the same time leaning his head
upon his left hand, supported by his elbow on the table, in a pensive posture, he said,
‘and there lie Lady S — , and cryl’

“Thus it was plain that he thoroughly understood the force of the argument from
the law of liberty, respecting the gross injury done to the married lady by her husband
in taking another woman to his bed.” Ibid.y pp. 150-2.

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

204

To which comes the significant reply:

“Miss Kitty is a long way the other side of a chicken. And when women
of her time of life don’t snow white, they snow black.” '■

Jerrold’s description of Caesar’s visit to the gallery of the
Covent Garden Theatre to see George Barnwell indicates, also, that
Negroes of the day had already been allotted a r61e, that of a
buffoon, which, as the American and Hollywood “coon” repre-
sentation, is a characteristic of modern racial attitude —

“Caesar attempting to rebuke Miss Canary’s revilers, diverted all their
sport to himself.

“ ‘Bill,’ cried one, ‘isn’t it going to thunder? it looks so black.’ ‘I wish I was
a nigger,’ roared another, ‘then I’d be a black rose between a couple of lilies
too.’ And then other pretty terms, such as ‘snow-ball’, ‘powder-puff’ were
hurled at Caesar.”

Outside the city, however, it is possible that the reaction
and attitudes of the rural people towards the Negro were quite
different. Thackeray’s Gumbo, though looked upon as somewhat
of a curiosity, was admired and respected by the domestic circle
at Gastlewood. He was a universal favourite at the village inn,
where he enjoyed considerable prestige as a fisherman, black-
smith, and huntsman.^ No objection was raised, apparently, to
his marrying one of the housemaids.^

Another of Thackeray’s novels. Vanity Fair, gives perhaps

^ Douglas Jerrold, St, Giles and St, James , 1851, p. 53.

Eventually the appearance of Mr. Caesar in the house of that small trader causes
consternation as well as amusement. It is altogether too much for Miss Canary, the
genteel vendor of fruit and snacks at the Covent Garden Theatre, who has fallen
in life.

“Caesar silently seated himself and looked about him — keenly relishing the cordial-
ity of his reception — with a face lustrous as blackest satin. In his great contentment,
he saw not Miss Canary who had risen from her chair, and stood still with unclosed
lips and wandering eyes, evidently feeling that her treasured gentility was quitting
her for ever, drawn magnetically from her by the presence of a negro. She could not
stay in the same room as a blackamoor — that was impossible. . . .

“Without knowing what she did. Miss Canary dropt in the chair; and then
vehemently hated herself for the docility. ... A livery was bad enough, but a livery
with a black man inside it! There was no lie she would not tell to escape the degrada-
tion.

“ ‘You’re very good, Mr. James; very kind, but I’ve such a headache,’ said

Miss Canary, ‘I do think my head will split in two. ...”

“ ‘Got a headache,’ exclaimed Kitty. ‘Where’s my salts, Caesar?’
“Immediately Caesar, taking a small bottle, warm from his pocket, advanced towards
Miss Canary, who tried to shrink through the back of the chair, as the black approached
her.”

Such an interlude to-day would probably be more typical of a London suburb,
or possibly a Bloomsbury boarding house, than of Holborn.

* W. M. Thackeray, The Virginians, (Thackeray himself was well disposed towards
Negroes.)

* op, cit.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF ENGLISH RACIAL ATTITUDES 2O5

the best insight into the attitudes of the middle and upper classes
of the earlier part of the century. Interestingly enough, it seems
to be the younger rather than the older generation of Vanity
Fair which is colour-conscious, and even that to a small extent
compared with their awareness of other and economic considera-
tions. When Miss Swartz, the woolly-haired but wealthy mulatto
from St. Kitts, is introduced into the circle,

“the major part of the Osborne family, who had not in fifteen years been
able to get up a hearty regard for Amelia Sedley, became as fond of Miss
Swartz in the course of a single evening as the most romantic advocate of
friendship at first sight could desire.”

For Mr. Osborne and his daughters, with visions of balls
in Portland Place, presentations at Court, introductions to
half the Peerage, George in Parliament, and other good things
which could result from Miss Swartz’s money, the fact that the
lady is coloured is of small moment. But George himself, who is a
captain in the Army and commissioned for India, thinks
differently. He is guided by other social values, and makes no
bones about his prejudice, although he admits that the lady has
her points:

“She has diamonds as big as pigeon’s eggs. . . . How they must set off her
complexion. A perfect illumination it must be when her jewels are on her
neck. Her jet black hair is as curly as Sambo’s. I daresay she wore a nose-
ring when she went to court; and with a plume of feathers in her top-knot
she would look like a perfect Belle Sauvage.”

The main concern of Mr. Osborne is that some “damn fellow
from the West End” will come in with “a title and a rotten rent
roll” ^ whilst George is still dallying. George’s reply is indicative,
perhaps, of the new implications which colour as a mark of social
inferiority had by this lime acquired —

“Marry that mulatto woman? I don’t like the colour, sir. Ask the black
that sweeps opposite Fleet Street, sir. I’m not going to marry a Hottentot
Venus.”

4. The Abolitionists and Popular Attitudes

It is obvious that for very many years in the 19th century
feeling and popular sentiment on behalf of the Negro as the

^ The announcement in the Scots Magazine of the marriage of a Scottish baronet
in 1825 to “Miss — of the West Indies, a very dark young lady — £30,000” seems to
bear this out.

2o6

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

victim of slavery ran very high in the country. No doubt the
spirit of controversy, as well as the Abolitionist and missionary
movements, did much to keep this stirring. Public meetings and
appeals on behalf of the Cause were held long after the abolition
of British participation in the Trade and the emancipation of
slaves in the British colonies. Mrs. Stowe’s novel Uncle Tom's
Cabin had travelled far and wide, and with great effect, and
individual Negroes were in great demand at Exeter Hall as
speakers, particularly if they came with first-hand experiences as
freed slaves. Negrophile attitudes, apparently, were strong in all
sections of society, especially amongst the nobility and the
“middling and better classes” which, to use the words of one
Negro and trans- Atlantic visitor, could be relied upon to “treat
a black man as a gentleman”. ^ To some extent the philanthropic
possibilities of the movement attracted the charitable and spare-

^ This was Samuel Ringgold Ward, who has recorded his experiences in the
U.S.A., Canada and Great Britain under the title of The Autobiography of a Fugitive
Slave, Ward’s escape by the “underground railway” to Canada, and his work in the
Abolitionist Movement there and in Great Britain, show him to have been a person
of considerable resource and ability. The account of his experiences in travelling on
a British ship to England is very illuminating as a description of how even at that
relatively early date (1853) American colour prejudice was affecting British treatment
of the Negro,

It appears that the friend who booked his passage on the Cunarder “Europa”
was handed a ticket with the endorsement —

“This gentleman’s passage is taken with the distinct understanding that he
shall have his meals in his stateroom — Ed. Cunard.”

“ As if this were not enough, so soon almost as I touched the deck of the ship, a
fine, gentlemanly-appearing Englishman accosted me —

“ ‘Mr. Ward, I believe?’

“‘The same.’

“ ‘You are going out to Liverpool?’

“T am.’

“ ‘When Mr. T. took your passage I was obliged to say to him that you would
take your meals in your stateroom; for you know, Mr. Ward, what are the prevalent
feelings in this country in respect of coloured people, and if you eat at the cabin table
Americans will complain. We cannot allow our ship to be the arena of constant
quarrels on this subject; we avoid the difficulty by making the rule that coloured
passengers shall eat in their staterooms, or we can’t take them.’

“I replied, T desire, Mr. Cunard, to be in London by the 4th of May. If I wait
for another steamer, I shall be too late. For that reason I submit to that to which, I
wish you to understand, I do not consent.’ ”

Apparently Ward soon got on terms of friendship with his fellow passengers, and
relates that Thackeray, who happened also to be travelling, was in the habit of calling
on him every evening for an hour’s conversation. Eventually, he was invited to take
his meals in the public cabin, and the only objection, which came from a Welshman
who had lived as his firm’s representative in the Southern States for some years, was
overruled.

Ward’s own analysis of the prejudice shown towards him is similar in essential
respects to a modern commentary on the same subject (compare Nancy Cunard,
J^egro Anthology y Wishart & Go.),

THE DEVELOPMENT OF ENGLISH RACIAL ATTITUDES 207

time activities of idle ladies, and to patronize societies for the
emancipation of Negroes became as fashionable as it had been
one hundred and fifty years earlier to own one. Since the cause
coincided with a period of acute social distress in Britain, it is not
surprising that it came in for a great deal of reproach. Mill-
owners were accused of succouring the black slaves out of the
profits ground out of their white ones, ^ and Michael Sadler in a
propagandist ballad told the true story of a factory child who had
collapsed and died from overwork and ill-treatment while she
was trying to go home through the snow after her day at the
loom —

“That night a chariot passed her while on the ground she lay.

The daughters of her master an evening visit pay,

Their tender hearts were sighing as negro wrongs were told,

But the white slave lay there dying who earned their father’s gold.” *

Despite this, the Negro seems to have raised extraordinarily
little exasperation, even among those who had least reason to pity
him.®

5. The Growth of Prejudice

By the end of the 19th century, however, attitudes towards
the Negro, as well as notions concerning him, seem to have
undergone a considerable change. No doubt the emotions of
sympathy aroused on his behalf had a great deal to do with
this. An object for pity becomes very often an object for con-
descension. The difficulty was that by emancipation he had
theoretically ceased to be either. It was no longer possible to
regard him merely as the faithful black, a typification of servile
devotion and fidelity. It was as if in becoming a “man and a

^ Macinnes {op, cit.) writes: —

“The majority of English men could afford to be zealous in the negro’s interests,
since so few of them were affected in their pockets by a campaign which threatened
ruin to the plantations. It was much easier to be sympathetic and broadminded about
negroes in Jamaica whom wealthy and cruel planters exploited than to protest against
the sufferings of English women and children who were daily sacrificed in the mills on
the altar of the new industrialism” (p. i68).

* Quoted by Lascelles, op, cit,

® J. L. and Barbara Hammond (in a reference which I am unable to check)
relate how the Glasgow spinners held a public meeting to protest against the treatment
of the slaves on the plantations at a time when their own plight was probably even
worse than that of ^e objects of their compassion.

2o8

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

brother”, as one anonymous commentator puts it, “he forthwith
ceased to be a friend”. Members of the public who had known
the Negro in his servile days looked back to them and to him with
sentiment and affection, but it is doubtful if they could bring
themselves to recognise and to relish him on terms of equality: ^

“By emancipation the Negro secured relief from serving in that (menial)
capacity at any rate, and forthwith he retired from duty as footman, valet and
body-servant. How far he was ever competent to discharge the duties of those
offices can hardly now be determined. If memory can be trusted, he seemed a
willing, useful, and most zealous functionary. Some of us must surely possess
youthful reminiscences of these Caesars and Pompeys of the past. How they
grinned! How they shone! How picturesque they were! They glorified the
livery they assumed; they sublimated their plush. There was no killing their
complexion; the brighter were the hues brought to bear upon it, so much
blacker and therefore better it looked. A negro might wear a dress made of
flamingo’s feathers — he could set them off, as they would him.”

How far this situation was affected further by the imperial-
istic fervour of the concluding years of the century it is difficult
to say. Britain does not seem to have recognised any “colour
problem” as such until after the First World war. A few years
after the Armistice of 1918, R. T. Lapiere, an American sociolo-
gist, made a short comparative study of racial attitudes towards
the Negro in various towns of England and France, and since
this provides the first scientific summary on the matter the
results are recapitulated here in some detail.

In France, Lapiere questioned 428 people with some variant
of “Would you let a good Negro live in your house?” and a
further 315 people in England with “Would you let children
(your own or other white children as the case might be) associate
with those of good coloured people?”^ Every effort was made to
prevent any suspicion arising as to the purpose of the questioning.
In so far as it is possible to effect a broad comparison, it appeared
that some 10 per cent, of the French sample, as against some 80
per cent, of the English, expressed prejudice. On the other hand
some 67 per cent, of the French sample were apparently without
prejudice against some 4 per cent, in the case of the English

^ All the Tear Rounds ubi cii. The “brotherhood” of the Negro was accepted and
made plain by the scientists; and Professor T. H. Huxley, speaking at the Royal
Institution, according to the Anti-Slavery Reporter (Vol. 15, No. 7, 1867), said: “The
negro is not the missing link between man and monkeys; he is further removed from
anthropoid apes in many respects than the English are.”

* R. T. Lapiere, Social Forces, VII., 102-11. “Race Prejudice: France and
England,” quoted in J{egro Tear Book, 1931-32.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF ENGLISH RACIAL ATTITUDES 209

one.^ ‘‘Why/’ Lapiere enquires, “do the French lack colour
prejudice?” He points out that in the main the attitude of the
average Frenchman towards the Negro must be called “derived”,
for the permanent Negro population is usually negligible. The
coloured population in England is equally small, and the fact
that many of them as students are well educated in English
customs and economically independent, would lead to no antagon-
ism. The other English source of direct contact, which on the
whole is less than in the French case, is with Africans and small
numbers of Indian seamen in the port areas, and would affect only
a small part of the English population. He concludes, therefore,
that:

“The problem becomes, then, one of determining what there has been in
English colonial contacts, which have been direct contacts, which differs so
greatly from that of French colonial contacts, that it could give rise to a strong
antagonism in England, expressed as colour antipathy.” *

^ Ibid, In order to get the widest possible distribution in France not more than ten
or fifteen people were so questioned in any village or city; in all 41 towns, villages and
cities being represented in the results, which from rural and urban France were as
follows:

Rural ....

Total,

227

Without

Prejudice,

i8i

Doubtful,

38

With

Prejudice,

8

Urban

201

. 106

58

37

Total ....

428

. 287

98

45

Class:

Upper . . . .

36

3

9

24

Middle ....

141

76

. 60

11

Lower ....

257

. 220

27

10

Sex:

Male ....

332

. 228

76

28

Female ....

96

59

. 20

>7

In England only four districts

were sampled, and the results were as

follows:

London . . . .

Total,

137

Without

Prejudice,

8

Doubtful,

23

With

Prejudice,

106

Birmingham City

43

2

7

34

„ Country

25

. 0

6

19

North Wales .

28

. I

3

24

Liverpool

82

3

8

• 7^

Total ....

315

14

47

254

Male ....

259

10

38

211

Female . . . .

56

4

9

43

* Ibid, Some 20 years later, a somewhat similar enquiry on colour prejudice in
England and France was carried out by S. P. Adinarayaniah on the basis of
the Bogardus Social District test. 175 English subjects and 30 French subjects were
asked to scale their attitudes towards a number of European and coloured national-
ities, i.e. English, Canadians, French, Germans, Chinese, Americans, Red Indians,
Indians, Italians and Negroes. From the English sample (which included well

210

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

6. The Philosophical Background and Colonial Contacts

This is an interesting and pertinent suggestion, but it must
suffice for present purposes to consider it merely in terms of the
present British situation, which requires some kind of historical
review if the variety of approaches implicit in modern attitudes in
this country towards the coloured man, and which involve
paternalism as well as repugnance, and friendliness and sympathy
as well as condescension, are properly to be understood.

Coloured people seem lo have been virtually absent from
the English scene throughout the greater part of the period pre-
ceding modern times, and this means a corresponding absence
of direct contacts at home, though not, of course, abroad. For
this reason it is necessary also that the psychological, or rather the
philosophical background, from which 19th-century and more
recent racial attitudes developed in this country, should not be
neglected.

The most extensive contacts of the British with coloured
people occurred in India, and it will be recalled in that respect
that the “colonial” outlook changed very substantially between
approximately the mid- 1 8th and mid- 19th centuries.^ In the
early days, in Africa as well as India, English traders and officials
were largely at the mercy of the native peoples concerned. They
were obliged for their own safety and for the sake of business to
accommodate themselves to the wishes and even the foibles of
their hosts. It was a situation which offered little incentive to

“educated** people in the main) “prejudice scores** were obtained (in ascending
order of magnitude) in respect of Indians, Italians, Chinese, Turks, Negroes and Red
Indians. No prejudice scores were secured from the 50 British students included in
the sample in respect to any of the above nationalities, but from French students
prejudice scores were made (in ascending order of magnitude) in respect to Italians,
Negroes and Turks. Adinarayaniah*s conclusion from his data is that colour pre-
judice is less among the French students than among the general British public, but
it is undoubtedly much greater among them than among British students (cf. S. P.
Adinarayaniah, Brit. J, Psych., 31, 217-29). This finding is, therefore, somewhat at
variance with that of Lapiere, quoted above, but, it should be added, is open to rather
severe criticism on methodological grounds.

^ In its earlier days, the East India Company obtained settlements, concessions,
and factories only on the sufferance of the Mogul, and of the local rulers, upon whose
goodwill their commercial activities were entirely dependent. After 1 707, this situa-
tion was altered by the break-up of the Mogul Empire. Largely for their own safety,
the Europeans were obliged to take sides with the warring factions, and from a com-
mercial outpost the Company soon developed into a military and conquering organisa-
tion. Significant dates in this respect are 1751 with Clive at Arcot, and the conquest
of ^ngal in 1755.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF ENGLISH RACIAL ATTITUDES 21 1

prejudice and even less opportunity for feelings of racial superior-
ity; and this, as already indicated, was at a time when the Slave
Trade was at its height. With the conquest of India and the
gradual consolidation of British rule, however, an entirely
different attitude developed. It was one of complete self-
assurance ^ coupled with a changed and almost fastidious reaction
to native customs and practices which the officials of the East
India Company had previously connived at and often condoned. ^
Though its implications are rather less clearly defined and its
progress is more variable, much the same kind of situation
developed, also, in the case of British Africa at different stages
of the late i8th and igth centuries.^ In the latter case, so far
as the repercussions at home are concerned, the growth of racial
prejudice is fairly obvious, and for a number of reasons which can
briefly be explained. It is probable, for example, that the real

^ It is significant for the growing self-confidence of English attitudes that no
question was asked as to the attractiveness of British methods, though various writers
spoke of the “immeasureable distance between us and the natives’ \ Two years before
the Mutiny, Dalhousie remarked that war or rebellion might break out in India at
any time, but did not ask if British rule was attractive as well as successful and ad-
vantageous. As early as 1819 Elphinstone gave expression to the new attitude when
he said, “the fault of our younger politicians — who have never seen the Indian States
in the days of their power — is a contempt for the natives, and an inclination to carry
everything with a high hand”, (cf. Cambridge History of the British Commonwealth ^
India.)

^ Many of the early traders found it convenient to live in the native fashion and to
take local women as wives. It is significant of the change in outlook that Sir Thomas
Munro, who governed Madras between 1820 and 1827, should write:

“We should look upon India ... as a possession ... to be maintained
permanently, until the natives shall in some future date have abandoned most
of their superstition and prejudices, and become sufficiently enlightened to
frame regular government for themselves. ...”

This religious view of Munro was held by the majority of the leading Indian Civil
Servants of the changing times whose attitudes in the matter were to a large extent
inspired by their horror of suttee and infanticide; it was coupled with equally strong
views on the remedial value of English education, (cf. E. L. Woodward, The Age
of Reform, “India”, pp. 387-93.)

Amongst the more specific factors responsible for the new attitude was the fact that
the steamship had shortened periods of service, and fewer Englishmen, therefore,
inclined to regard India as a home; the increase in the number of English women in
the country made social relations less easy and more self-conscious; and the religious
situation at home, which had changed profoundly under the influence of the Evangel-
ical movement {ibid.),

® For South Africa, see MacCrone {op. cit.) who affords a striking illustration of
considerations fairly similar to the Indian example, and has traced in a convincing
way the change in European attitudes towards the aboriginal peoples of the Cape.
The present writer is not aware of any completely analogous study respecting West
and East Africa, but regarding the former territories, Wyndham {op. cit.) and Martin
{op. cit.) as well as other historians of the areas concerned, provide numerous instances
of Anglo-Negro contact and their outcome, more particularly in the earlier days of
British settlement on the coast.

212

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

basis of feelings of superiority towards the African was laid in the
Slave Trade, and as early as the 17th century. The effect of this
on the rank and file of English-speaking people was to make all
slaves members of a permanently inferior caste. All Africans
were thought of as potential slaves.^ In addition, the interest
awakened in evolution and evolutionary theories which gained
momentum during the third quarter of the 19th century, was
interpreted socially, as well as biologically, and since it was
inconceivable that the Victorian world could be anywhere save
at the moral and cultural apex of the scheme, the “savage” had
to be graded accordingly.^

The later 19th century was notable, too, not only for the
parcelling out of Africa amongst the European powers, but for
the facility with which the expansionist tendencies of those
powers were rationalized. Interest in and the use of the concept
of race for national and political purposes rose to a pitch which
has been excelled only in recent Totalitarian propaganda.
Every such theory, Aryanism, Nordicism, and Teutonism, is
consistent in affirming the superior race to He white, whatever
further criteria are demanded for the chosen people. By corollary,
it is equally unambiguous in attributing inferiority of biological
status to the coloured races, with various concomitants of sensu-
ality, apathy, mental incapacity, etc., scaled according to the
particular cultural values of its propounders. ^

^ cf. F. G. Detweiler, “The Rise of Modern Racial Antagonisms”, American J.
Soc.y vol. 37 > PP- 131-2- .

* It is less generally realized, perhaps, that in some respects the implications of the
Darwinian theory were anticipated in a racialist sense many years before the Origin of
Species by several scientists and writers. One of the former, Charles White, read a
paper to the Manchester Philosophical Society in 1796 entitled “An Account of the
Regular Gradations in Man, and in Different Animals and Vegetables, and from the
Former to the Latter”, the thesis of which was that the Negro “seems to approach
nearer to the brute creation than any other of the human species”. A later anthropo-
logical excursion of a less obviously racialist pattern is the polygenic theory of the
German anthropologist Klaatsch.

Lewis Morgan’s theories of social “evolution” are quoted by R. Lowie in his
History of Ethnological Theory.

Ralph Linton {The Study of Man) suggests that the theory of evolution took the
place of previous rationalizations in justification of the dominance of the white races.
Since the latter had survived and been more successful than the other races, they must
be superior to them, not only in organization ^nd efficiency, but in every other field,
including the mental and moral.

® The kernel of the latter kind of philosophy is epitomised, of course, in the writings
of de Gobineau, whose racial hierarchy is based on the black races as the serf class of
society, followed by the yellow, and with the white races, representing god-like
reason, and excelling in mental, moral, and physical features, as the ruling cla3S
(see his Inequality of the Human Races),

THE DEVELOPMENT OF ENGLISH RACIAL ATTITUDES 21$

These resuscitated and newer attitudes towards the African
included corollaries, such as horror and repulsion, which the
older ones of paternalism and curiosity seldom possessed, and
which were relatively rare even in the case of Indians.^ Such
aspects derived in the main from the outpourings of returned
missionaries, and to some extent, perhaps, from the somewhat
ingenuous discoveries, anthropological and otherwise, of early
ethnologists, travellers and explorers. The fact that, thanks to
the influence of Lord Teignmouth, the missionaries had
penetrated even to the heart of the East India Company’s territory
as early in the century as 1813, was symptomatic of their en-
thusiasm and zeal for work with fresh “heathen” whose cultures
and religions, unlike Islam and Hinduism, were too weak to with-
stand them. No doubt, as Detweiler remarks, “it helped the
cause to paint the savage repulsively”, and to describe him in
“somewhat terrible terms’’.^ Hitherto, Africans had been thought

Books more widely read in this country were Madison Grant’s Passing of the Great
Race, and Lothrop Stoddard’s Rising Tide of Colour against White Supremacy, neither of
which is at all diffident about proclaiming the innately superior and civilizing qualities
of the White races and their civilizing mission and destiny. The latter author, indeed,
describes the spirit of the times rather aptly when he writes that Kipling’s famous
phrase, the “White Man’s Burden” . . . “only faintly conveys the almost religious
spirit of consecration with which many of the great European empire-builders under-
took their task. . . . Men like Havelock, Nicholson, and Gordon, the martyr of
Khartoum, felt themselves engaged in something very like a divine mission. This
belief in themselves and in their cause was a source of immense spiritual power”.

It is unnecessary to enlarge on the ramifications of this matter, which have been
treated very extensively elsewhere and by numerous authors, such as F. H. Hankins,
Racial Basis of Civilisation, and Jacques Barzun, ^^Race^\ a Study in Modern Superstition,
amongst the foremost.

^ The main psychological element in the Indian case seems to have been one of
superiority, and according to a contemporary “correspondent” of The Times it
played a large part in aggravating the situation which led to the Mutiny: —

“I allude to our roughness of manner in our intercourse with the natives . . .
and I must say that I have been struck with the arrogant and repellent manner
in which we often treat natives of rank, and with the unnecessary harshness of
our treatment of inferiors. The most scrubby mean little representative of
la race blanche . . . regards himself as infinitely superior to the Rajpoot with a
genealogy of i,ooo years. ...”

^ Detweiler, op. cit. See, in particular, Mary Kingsley on this point in her West
African Studies, pp. 321-2. She writes, also, of the apathy of the English public, “a
public which unless it is stirred up by horrors would not subscribe.”

The overseas missions were largely a derivative of the Evangelical Movement,
which attained its height in 1825. Wfien the i8th century opened, and for many
years to come, there was not a single Protestant missionary in the entire world with the
exception of a small group of the Moravian Brethren. The Methodists opened in
1787 a regular system of foreign missions, and this was eleven years after the founda-
tion of a Society for Missions in Africa and the East. The Baptists and the Evangelicals
followed respectively in 1792 and 1795, and the latter founded before the Anglican
Society a London Missionary Society, based on principles of united action by all
denominations of orthodox Christians. Nonconformist missionaries were now scattered

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

214

of mainly as potential slaves: and the public did not know any
way to distinguish them except by their dark colour. Now, the
black man who had previously occupied the compartment
“slave”, went into the compartment called variously “savage”
and “heathen” along with the red men;^ but as the “bogey man”
of the late Victorian era he was a different kind of savage from
the days of Dampier and Anson.

Though the implications of missionary fervour in the late
19th and early 20th century were far-reaching, it is probable
that so far as the British public is concerned, another and material
factor was of more general significance in this matter. Convincing
as national and evolutionary theories on race may have been to
certain intellectuals and litterateurs of the day, it is doubtful if
they moved the common man very much. The general public
has never had much patience with abstract notions of race and
racial superiority, and more particularly in recent times it is
more likely that the general belief in “Civilisation” and the whole
philosophy of “progress”, which Storck is not alone in regarding
as a distinguishing trait of Western culture, was far more con-
clusive in justifying psychologically and apparently concretely,
what the racialists claimed in less understandable language.^
Not only is there a curious kind of magic and compulsion about
such words and catch-phrases, but in purely objective terms
also the immense achievements of Western society — unprece-
dented development of tools, tool technology, efficient organisa-
tion, scientific inventions, etc., etc. — stood out in convincing
contrast to what was popularly known and appreciated of non-
civilised and coloured peoples.®

throughout the British colonies wherever there were slaves or aborigines to be con-
verted, in Nova Scotia, Jamaica, Trinidad, or on the West Coast of Africa, among the
Hottentots, or in the East Indies (cf. Hale'vy, A History of the English People in 1815).

^ Detweiler, op. cit.

* cf. J. Storck, Man and Civilisation^ pp. 60-61, who claims that the contemporary
notion of “progress” was unknown to the ancients. Compare also S. B. Fay in Methods
in Social Science, p. 287, and Edward Carpenter, Civilisation, its Cause and Cure.

In his analysis of South African attitudes, MacCrone {op. cit.) points out clearly
that the attitudes remain the same, though they may be differently rationalised. The
emphasis is now laid upon the white man and his “civilisation” rather than upon the
Christian and his “religion” (footnote to p. 135). This point has probable significance
for the development of racial attitudes in this country, but the present writer has been
unable to trace sufficient material to make an exposition of the transitional stages
evident enough.

® W. Bryant Mumford, Island India, makes this point rather clearly in his descrip-
tion of Dutch-Javanese contacts. W. G. Sumner, The Folkways, has an interesting
passage on the sociological significance of Catchwords and Shibboleths.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF ENGLISH RACIAL ATTITUDES 215

7. The Part of the Colonial Class

We may now continue in the light of this historical perspec-
tive to consider Lapiere’s suggestion, and this from the angle,
also, that the philosophical and psychological background
described above is more meaningful as an explanation of con-
temporary racial attitudes when certain dynamic factors are
added to it. These derive partly at least from the nature of British
colonial policy and methods of government. In contrast to what
appears to be the assimilative aim of French policy, at any rate
so far as literate members of the French colonial empire are
concerned, British colonial organisation has so far made for
separation rather than amalgamation in the social as well as in
the racial sense. ^ The British dependencies contain a relatively
small number of highly educated and highly paid officials,
representing the higher academic and social classes of England,
whose work in Africa, as elsewhere, consists mostly of organising
and directing coloured subordinates — a situation which inevitably
creates a wide social gulf between African and European. ^
The British official’s dominance is consolidated and enhanced
by the relatively higher rate of salary attached to it, which in the
Administrative services proper rises customarily to £ 1,000 per
annum, and includes pension rights, leave with pay, and free
passages for wives and children.

^ It is possible to perceive some modification in the non-assimilative aspects of
British colonial policy in recent declarations of “partnership in the Empire’*.

* For an interesting discussion of the social implications of French vis-^t-vis British
policy see W. B. Mumford and G. St. Orde Brown, Africans learn to be French, chapter i.
These writers claim that the logical outcome of the French situation in respect to
Government services is that French officials who live and work alongside coloured
men and women tend to look upon them and to treat them largely as colleagues and
friends. In French territories, where many European officials have minor qualifica-
tions and occupy minor posts and some Africans have high qualifications and occupy
senior posts, both Africans and Europeans share a French outlook upon life, as well
as similar standards of living and similar interests. In the British case, the social
barriers, for reasons of official etiquette apart from anything else, are virtually
impassable. Mumford summarizes the matter and its converse implications as
follows:

“Any African who has been educated in a French school finds ready friends
in French officials. But in the interior French officials tend to have little patience
with the completelyuneducated African. Hence they often seem harsh and cruel.
The experience of British officials was exactly the reverse. They had . . . un-
limited patience and understanding of the untutored Africans in the bush, but
they found it difficult to mix with educated Africans on terms of mutual respect
and for mutual enjoyment** (p. 68).

2i6

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

The social implications of this at home are very considerable:
bearing in mind that in, for example, the years before the 1939
war, only some 4 per cent, of the British population enjoyed
incomes of £500 per year and over, and anything over ;^i,ooo
per year put the recipient into the same income-group as the top
i^ per cent, of earners in Great Britain. It enabled British
middle-class persons, as Leonard Barnes points out, to live upper-
class lives on condition that they went to the Tropics to do so. ^
Taking both official and unofficial employees in the other
coloured countries of India and Burma, as well as in the Colonies,
the same writer estimates that they number between 156,000
and 240,000.2

This class of government officials, merchants, and others
directly in contact with coloured peoples is a small proportion
of the British population as a whole, but a very significant one
in terms of the peculiar position it occupies in the social and
economic hierarchy. History offers few, if any, examples of a
privileged and influential class being willing to forego, or even
to share, its power and status with those whom they dominate.
It would be invidious to suggest that the majority of British
people thus placed are guided consciously by such considerations
in their reactions to the coloured man. It would be equally
invidious to doubt that much that is obscure in racial attitudes
of hostility and antagonism is explicable in this way — in terms
of resistance to a threat, real or imaginary, to existing status.^
From the sociological angle the implications of this point are
immediate and often far-reaching. The social position and
prestige of the colonial class at home is enough to give their
personal opinions, whether uttered privately or in public, con-
siderable weight, and rationalizations on their part, even when
apparent, are less readily contested by the general public on the
grounds of their propounders’ first-hand knowledge and experi-

^ cf. Leonard Barnes, Democracy or Empire, p. 9, et seq. Elsewhere {Soviet Light
on the Colonies) the same writer argues in the more general sense that the British
colonial system depends largely on the tradition and policy of protecting British
extra-territorial rights abroad, rather than on developing the areas concerned.

2 Ibid.

* For psychological expositions of this suggestion, see G. M. Stratton, Socicd
Psychology of International Conduct, pp. 45-65, and F. Brown, ‘ 4 The Socio-Psychological
Analysis of Racial Prejudice**, J. of Abn. Soc. Psych., vol. 26, pp. 364-75.

The existence of prejudice among individual Colonial officials is very strongly
implied in a very recent Colonial Office White Paper on the Colonial Service (June,
1946).

THE DEVELOPMENT OF ENGLISH RACIAL ATTITUDES 21 7

ence. ^ It would be unwise to generalize too far on this point, but
the following comments of a correspondent of the Spectator on the
Indian Civil Servant, though less relevant, perhaps, in respect
of tropical dependencies, contain enough truth to be reproduced
in extenso : —

“The growing colour prejudice against the Indian in England is duc>
among other things, to the fact that the Britishers retired from overseas
dependencies and now permanently settled in England are increasing in
numbers from year to year. Through circumstances which they could not
always help these gentlemen had occasion to see only a small section of the
people in those countries and by no means the best side of their character.
Therefore, the opinions which are now given and taken as the result of lifelong
experience were really formed on an imperfect knowledge.

“An Indian civil servant goes to India at about 24. During the first four
or five years of his career in India he is posted to a country town in the capacity
of what is called a sub-divisional magistrate. He spends the morning in going
through his files and receiving visitors who are mostly title-holders and title-
seekers or seek jobs for themselves or their dependents. The hours between
eleven and four — the so-called office hours — he spends in trying criminal
cases of all descriptions, such as theft, burglary, arson, rape, poisoning, etc.
The European community in such towns is extremely small, consisting often
of a few jute merchants with whom he spends the evening. He cannot help
listening to their complaints of the tricks played on them by native brokers.
He does not seek any Indian society, because the Indians he has met or heard
about did not impress him. Four or five years of life like this and the young
English Civil Servant has formed his opinion of Indians. . . *

Before we conclude, there is a final and even more subtle
sociological factor which requires brief mention. This is the
acute and almost unique sense of class-consciousness which
developed in English society as the product of multiple forces
before and during the Industrial Revolution. The result of
this social and economic upheaval, in particular, was to throw
increasing doubt on the validity of wealth and its possession as a
satisfactory criterion of social position. This affected the middle
classes more than the upper classes of society, and meant that

^ Leonard Barnes {op, ct 7 .) quotes G. T. Garratt as suggesting that “these pen-
sioners*’ with colonial and Indian service, who have spent their active careers “exercis-
ing petty dictatorships” of their own over Asiatic or Indian servants, form the handiest
of all raw material for a fascist movement at home. At the same time, Barnes admits
that the modern official, with all his limitations, is remarkably free from jingo
sentiment, and views with wholesome scepticism the old “clap-trap” about Empires
designed to spread European enlightenment in the dark places of the earth. He secs
himself, not as an Empire builder, but as a builder and decorator of native societies.
{Op, cit,)

^ Quoted in the Spectator ^ March 1931. According to another Indian correspond-
ent of the same periodical, “it was usually found at the hotels and boarding-houses
where they (coloured people) were refused accommodation, that the “objectors”
were white lodgers who had been in the East and “had seen the native in his den”.

8

2i8

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

members of the former groups felt continuously anxious about
their position and correspondingly ready to assert it. Largely
as a consequence of this, the other and less easily acquired
traits of social superiority — possession of education and the
appropriate performance of social etiquettes and rituals — assumed
an intrinsic importance of their own in helping to distinguish
society. In such insignia the “black man” and the aboriginal,
particularly as he was known to or interpreted by travellers
and missionaries and in other ways, was plainly lacking. His
only qualification was his blackness, the former label of “slave”,
and its other associations. He fitted in, therefore, only on the
bottom rung of the social ladder to elevate those hardly less lowly
placed than himself and to become thereby the recipient of
social attitudes whose basis was class as much as race. ^

Thus, and with ever-varying shape, out of the historical
and complicated background of overseas exploration, slave-
ownership, and colonial expansion, and their rationalization
and incorporation in the cultural heritage, developed the diffuse
assortment of modern English attitudes towards the coloured man,
described in more detail in the next chapter.

CHAPTER 9

THE COLOURED MAN THROUGH MODERN ENGLISH

EYES

I. Lack of Popular Knowledge and Interest

In attempting to describe the Englishman’s impressions of
coloured people in Britain and his reactions towards them, it is
important to realise that so far as something like 95 per cent, of
English people are concerned, ^ they are based entirely on some
stereotyped idea rather than on first-hand personal knowledge

^ Coloured students studying social welfare or methods of teaching in the poorer
quarters of London and other cities still complain fairly frequently of attitudes of
“superiority” as well as curiosity towards them on the part of even some of the most
down-at-heel and decrepit inhabitants of the districts concerned, (cf. Kobina Sekyi
in the Anglo^Fanti^ quoted in the final chapter of this book, “The Coloured Man’s
Reaction to the English”.)

* This estimate is based on enquiries made in the course of lecturing to troops,
with audiences of 200. It must obviously be regarded as extremely tentative.

THE COLOURED MAN THROUGH ENGLISH EYES 219

of coloured people. These form a very small part of the English
population, and although the Second World War increased their
numbers and widened their distribution, they are ordinarily
to be met or even seen in anything like representative numbers
only in the large seaport cities, including London, and, in a
less representative sense, in certain university towns. It will
already be clear that the coloured person in the dockland area
of English ports is usually of the poorer, less “acculturated” and less
educated type. As we shall see more fully in the next chapter,
factors in the sociological situation itself, such as the colour bar,
limit even further the ordinary Englishman’s possibility of meeting
an educated coloured person, and tend to restrict such contacts
largely to officials of the Colonial Office, welfare organisations,
and the like.

Further, the ordinary English person has little interest in and
even less knowledge of Colonial countries and peoples. The war
has introduced various Colonial place-names like Singapore,
Hong Kong, etc., into current conversation, but it is doubtful
whether five persons out of a hundred could say, for example,
if Kumasi, the Ashanti capital, is in Africa, Asia or Australia;
or could name a single African people apart from the Zulu.
Knowledge of the ethnology of the Colonial empire is probably
even more sparse than of its geography, and all things considered
it is safe to conclude that most English people’s conception of
“the Colonies” is an extremely hazy one. This general lack of
information and apathy appears to derive largely from the
curricula in English schools. In the up-to-date geography book,
it is true, there is usually a fairly adequate account of various
“colonial” peoples, more particularly in reference to their
economic adaptation to environment, and sometimes even a short
account of their social institutions. But the older geography
books, and those used in elementary schools, are often incomplete
or out of date on this point, or deal mainly in popular generalisa-
tions like “lazy Negroes”, “impassive Redskins”, etc. Anthro-
pology as a subject does not exist in the ordinary school syllabus,
and it is therefore to History that we might reasonably look for a
comprehensive description and analysis of these questions.
An examination of some two dozen “British” histories in use
mainly in English secondary schools shows that the extent to
which such ground is covered in terms of the actual history,

220

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

institutions and affairs of colonial peoples is altogether negligible.
British coloured peoples and countries, with the occasional
exception of India, receive little more than incidental and random
treatment, and with very few exceptions the light is thrown
exclusively on the roles of European administrators, statesmen,
soldiers, settlers, missionaries, etc., never on the local peoples.
Coloured peoples lack all identity and are characterised simply
as “natives”, wherever they may live. ^

It is only when we approach the teaching of Colonial History
in terms of Higher School Certificate and university standards
that its presentation can be regarded as anything like com-
prehensive. But the inclusion of the subject in these examinations
does not seem to have led to any degree of interest in the matter.
The report of an enquiry made in 1941 by a sub-committee of the
Headmasters’ Conference makes it clear that

“The significant feature ... is not that the Boards did not set papers on the
Empire, but that the schook did not ask for them, and made but meagre use
when they were set. . .

It is hardly necessary to add that ignorance on matters
appertaining to the Empire on the part of English people is
particularly galling to colonial visitors, who are themselves
taught in their schools at home, in the West Indies, West Africa
and in other parts of the Empire, the essentials of “British”
history. It is no less significant that when the Royal Empire
Society has offered prizes for essays on subjects connected with the
Empire, it has been more successful in attracting candidates in the
Dominions and the Colonies than in this country. A prize has
been won as far afield as an Indian Reserve in Alberta.®

^ The last paragraph is based on an enquiry conducted by a group of educational-
ists to which the present writer acted as honorary secretary. Their report has been
published under the title Race Relations and the Schools, by the League of Coloured
Peoples.

Apart from the points mentioned above, several other deficiencies were found,
such as a general misuse of the term “race’*, which might be expected to contribute
substantially to misunderstanding as well as apathy on the Colonial and racial situation.

* cf. The Round Table: “Education and Empire” 1942. Out of eight Boards which
conduct examinations for the School Certificate, four set a special paper on Empire
History. Candidates taking this were: —

Oxford Delegacy — 600 out of 10,000 candidates.

London Matric. — 20 out of 1,800 candidates.

Cambridge Local — 225 out of 6,500 candidates.

Central Welsh Board — 5 out of 5,500 candidates.

In the High School Certificate Examination, Oxford, Cambridge and London set
optional papers on Imperial or Colonial History, which were taken by 22 and 118
candidates respectively.

» Ibid.

THE COLOURED MAN THROUGH ENGLISH EYES 221

In short, it is not easy, even in general terms, to say how
general knowledge and opinions regarding the coloured and
Colonial peoples are affected by the schools. No doubt there
is some reason to modify the verdict of Miss Perham, a writer
on Colonial affairs, who remarks in a recent anthology that —

“At school and subsequently I had absorbed the idea that pre-European
Africa was a place of complete and anarchic savagery.” *

But even granting, as is not unreasonable, the possibility that
present-day teachers are disposed to be more enterprising, it is
difficult to see how, in the absence of anthropology from the
curriculum, and of an anthropological outlook, any real and
significant presentation of Colonial peoples can be effected.
Even granting that the study of human geography affords some
scope, it appears that “the School Certificate examining boards
do not set special papers on Human Geography, and in general,
geography in Secondary Schools is undifferentiated at the School
Certificate stage”, and “is limited to a degree of emphasis on the
human aspects of geography”.^ Biology is another subject,
particularly in its human aspect, which might be regarded as
having some significance for this problem and for that of cultural
and biological differences, and during the years 1937 to 1941
rather more than 15,000 candidates annually offered this subject.
But here again there is a virtual absence of any emphasis on the
human side,® and no adequate substitute for anthropological
considerations.

The bearings of the educational question as a stimulus to and
background of knowledge on the subject are too wide for adequate
justice to be done them here,'* and it must suffice to note that

^ cf. M. Perham and J. Simmons, African Discovery.

* Communicated by Board of Education.

® Communicated by Board of Education, 1943.

* On the wider implications of school teaching and curricula, the following
remarks of a somewhat critical observer require consideration: —

“School teaching is still based largely upon the use of text-books; and text-
books, besides being dangerous simplifications of information, are usually behind
the times. New discoveries, new facts, new opinions, do not filter down into
text-book expression for some years after their original enunciation. There is a
time-lag which results in the information given to the children — unless it is
corrected and amplified by teachers — being slightly maladjusted to the actual
facts of their environment. In a word, children are being a little misled in their
acquisition of knowledge — the misleading amounting to a form of propaganda on
behalf of the old-fashioned, the traditional, and the conservative, as against the
new-fangled, the innovating and the reforming point of view.** R. S. Lambert,
Propaganda^ p. 107.

222

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

traditional and simplistic interpretations of human behaviour,
particularly in respect of the “simpler” cultures, have taken
deep root even among the better-educated members of English
society. The following statement, abstracted from the writings of a
well-known authority on jurisprudence, may be regarded as a
fair index to the opinions of many well-read members of the
public —

All creatures are creatures of habit. In the lower forms of life, habit is
automatic and apparently uncontrollable; we call it instinct, and beyond
knowing that it exists and produces extraordinary phenomena, we are unable
to explain it. In man, habit is not entirely automatic; though in the more
primitive forms of social grouping it is very nearly so. There is not a vast
difference between the automatism of an ant and the tribal habits of the
Australian aborigine; the ant, indeed, in many respects has the better of the
comparison. ^

There is no doubt that a great deal of the present apathy in
educational as well as in more popular circles regarding the
Colonies can be traced to the reaction against “imperialism”
which followed the First World war. It has its counterpart in the
political field in the fact that the Colonial Empire is discussed
in the House of Commons only once a year, and since enquiries
addressed to the Minister at question time have only an indirect
bearing in the legislative sense, the function which nominally
belongs to the elected representatives of the English people is
left largely in the hands of a permanent bureaucracy. In recent
years, judging by the frequency with which the position of
Secretary of State for the Colonies has changed tenants, the post
has not been one to command the permanent attention of an
ambitious politician. ^ In these circumstances, ignorance and lack
of interest on the part of the ordinary Englishman come to form
a vicious circle. They constitute, moreover, another restrictive
factor, so far as personal contacts with coloured people in this
country are concerned, and one which should be borne in mind
in assessing the Englishman’s racial impressions.

In the abstract sense, however, English people on the whole
are favourably disposed and sympathetic towards the coloured
man. They believe as keenly in the idea of his being given “a
square deal” as in that of democracy. They deplore the suggestion

^ Carlton Kemp Allen, M.A., D.C.L., “Custom: Nature and Origin” in Law in the
Making (1939), p. 62.

‘ cf. Douming Street and the Colonies (Fabian Colonial Bureau) for an interesting
discussion of this point.

THE COLOURED MAN THROUGH ENGLISH EYES 223

that he should be exploited, and are hardly less anxious (in no
less abstract and general terms) that he should go forward on
terms of equality with the white man. Most attitudes are no more
specific than this, and without careful cross-examination it is
virtually impossible to decide whether the average English
person has any particular goal, political or social, or any reserva-
tion or qualification in his views on the subject, though some
exception may be made in the case of Indians and Chinese.

2. The Official Standpoint

This ideological and rather benevolent view of the man in
the street is expressed from time to time on his behalf by the
Colonial Secretary of the day and by other officials. Particularly
since the beginning of the Second World war announcements
such as the following have been frequently forthcoming:

If we are fighting for liberty we cannot set bounds to the advance of other
races. We must avoid any reproach that, when we blame Hitler for his
poisonous doctrine of the Herrenvolk, we have a similar doctrine lurking in our
own hearts.^

Similar views are echoed periodically by Left Wing newspapers
with a suitable note of righteous indignation at Government
ineptitude or official failure to propagate the appropriate policy:

Coloured peoples will only support us with enthusiasm if we give them
cause to do so. The test of a policy is the response it evokes from the governed
under the impact of crisis.

With solemn regularity our rulers assure us that this is a world war, a war
in which all human beings that aspire to freedom fight as one, irrespective of
creed or race. Let them turn this assurance into reality by pursuing a policy
to match. “

Left Wing newspapers also find the existence of colour prejudice
a particularly useful stick with which to beat the existing admin-
istration:

When the other fellow’s skin happens to be coloured, then the Britisher’s
gift for underestimating him becomes all the more pronounced. The Colonial
administrator and trader have been so accustomed to feeling a superior being
among “the natives’’ that they have grown almost incapable of treating them
on equal terms — either as foe or friend. ’ ,

* Lord Moyne, Secretary of State for the Colonies, at a meeting of the Royal
Empire Society, October 1941.

‘ News Chronicle leader, after the fall of Malaya, Feb. 1942.

* News Chronicle leader.

NEOROES IN BRITAIN

S24

Government spokesmen themselves and other publicists are
equally definite in their pronouncements about colour dis-
crimination:

I should like to say at once that the British Government is in favour of
putting an end to thb prejudice as quickly as possible. It should die a natural
death as many other prejudices have done in the past, and it should be helped
to die quickly. ^

And the theme is taken up by the writer of a Times leader-page
article, who suggests that

We must ask whether we can continue to indulge ourselves any longer in
an attitude of mind which, at its worst, regards other races of men almost as
if they were another species. ^

Many similar declarations and quotations, comments and
observations, could be adduced. They come from every section
and stratum of English society, from the trade union to the Church
Assembly and from the House of Commons to the local newspaper.
Their general tenor leaves no possible doubt of the fact that in
every sense of official pronouncement and policy, colour-bar
practices as well as colour prejudice are strongly discounten-
anced. ^ The question of legislative measures has been raised on
a number of occasions in the House, in respect both to the position
of lodging-house and hotel keepers and the licensing of dance
halls. In each case, however, the Government spokesman has
indicated that such matters are not under the control of the
legislature, and in the case of dance halls, are for local control.
If it can be shown that a hall which is licensed for a given purpose

^ Brendan Bracken, Minister of Information, in the Sunday press.

* Margery Perham, The Times, 14th March, 1942.

* They are equally discountenanced in the law courts. In a CEise at London
Sessions in 1924, two women were charged with robbery from an Indian. The jury
were long in considering their verdict, and on the chairman inquiring whether they
would like to ask him any questions, the foreman said that the “question of colour”
had been raised. Sir Robert Wallace promptly declared that it was scandalous that
such a point should be raised in a British Court of Justice, and ordered the juryman
who had raised the question to leave the box, and another juror was sworn in. (Quoted
in Anti-Slavery Reporter and Aborigines' Friend, vol. 13, no. 4, 1924, pp. 158-9.)

In a more recent case in Liverpool, Recorder Hemmerde commented critically
on the Government’s failure to protect its Colonial subjects from discourtesy in various
forms in this country. The legal position in respect to lodging houses and hotels over
this matter is extremely complicated, and seems to hinge mainly on the question
of contract, and in no way on race or colour. On various occasions coloured in-
dividuals who have been refused accommodation have sued the hotel keeper concerned
on the former ground and have been awarded damages. A recent and well publicized
case was that of Mr. Learie Constantine, the West Indian Cricketer, v. Imperial
Hotels Ltd., in which the plaintiff* was successful and was awarded damages on a
technical and purely legal point*,

THE COLOURED MAN THROUGH ENGLISH EYES 225

is in fact discriminating against a section of the community, it is
a matter for local appeal against the holder of such a licence.^
The official attitude, in other words, recapitulates the traditional
basis of English constitutional principles, i.e. to allow the maximum
of latitude in the settlement of local affairs, with the minimum of
interference from the central government.

3 . “Resistance” to Coloured People and its Extent

It is evident that there is a wide gap in several respects in this
country between the professed and official attitude towards the
Colonial and coloured peoples of the Empire as an abstract
concept, and the attitude towards them in terms of social and
personal relationships. Perhaps the simplest way of assessing
the discrepancy is to note how English people react towards
the latter, i.e. to the possibility of close individual contact with a
coloured person. From “census” material relevant to some 700
“cases”, consisting in the main of middle-class families, and with
a fair sprinkling of guest-house proprietors, landladies, etc., it is
estimated that up to some 60 per cent., and perhaps even more,
specifically refused to take a coloured person into their homes or
houses. These data were collected in the years immediately before
the Second World War. The questionnaire method, as a rule, suffers
from the difficulty of distinguishing between the actual and the
supposed reactions of the “subjects” concerned. In this case,
however, the subjects would obviously expect to be called upon
to receive a coloured guest, and in consequence their reaction
may sociologically, if not psychologically, be regarded as valid.
The greatest “resistanfce” was shown in the case of the guest-
house proprietors, followed by the “private families” and land-
ladies. The sample contained a fair proportion of persons who
may be regarded as “highly educated”, i.e. who possess university
degrees, practise as doctors, lawyers, etc., and of the clergy.
There was no significant difference between their reactions as a
group and that of the sample as a whole. ^

^ Hansard,

^ A full description of this experiment, with tables and a discussion of its socio-
logical implications, is given in Appendix L The respective proportions of “hostesses”
were: “private individuals and families” 82.5%, landladies guest houses and

boarding houses 6.2%.

226

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

In a further and deliberately planned experiment, members of
Workers Educational Association classes were asked to supply
answers, in an anonymous capacity, to the following questions:

1. Do you know personally any members of the following Coloured
peoples; Africans, Indians, Chinese, West Indians, any other Coloured
peoples? If so, say how many such persons you do know, and how well.

2. What do you believe your reaction would be to the idea of mixing
socially; (A) being introduced to, or playing some game like tennis, and
(B) dancing with members of the aforementioned coloured peoples?

3. What do you believe the reaction in your home would be if you
introduced a Coloured person into it?

4. Please say briefly whence you believe your opinion or knowledge of
Coloured persons or peoples is mostly derived.

Some 300 forms were distributed, and 43 which were returned
were suitable for classification. Their answers were summarised
in the following table. It should be remarked that most of the
subjects, as members of W.E.A. classes, may be looked upon not
only as relatively well informed, but as possibly more liberal in
their views on matters of this kind than quite a substantial
section of the population. It will be noted that they indicated
their strongest resistance in the case of Africans (the category
least personally known), and of dancing with an African. Though
the numbers in either case are much too small to ofier significant
results, it will be noted that in terms of supposed “home reactions”
it was thought that Africans would be received least favourably
in the home circle. Indians are known personally on the widest
scale, and “reactions” towards them and the other “nationalities”,
including West Indians, are generally uniform.

4. Physical Repulsions and their Analysis

It was clear from these analyses, as well as from further
empirical consideration of the matter, that English people hold
a wide variety of prejudices against coloured persons, and profess
to be unwilling to make social contact with them for those
reasons or rationalisations. One of the most frequent objections
mentioned is on account of physical attributes. This applies
most strongly in the case of the Negro, and repulsion to his
physical features is the reason usually given. A woman teacher
(aged 35) was repelled by the idea of dancing with coloured
persons solely because of their colouring, and the “fact that they

Supposed Personal Reactions

THE COLOURED MAN THROUGH ENGLISH EYES

227

the subjects showed no significant difference from the above.

22 &

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

were not British”. A man in the leather trade understood that
Africans smell, and the same belief was shared by a labourer
aged 24, a woman teacher aged 48, and a schoolmaster aged 27.
None of these people knew any Africans personally. The younger
woman added that she would not like to dance with an African
owing to his colour. A woman school teacher also thought that
Africans would not be favourably received in her home owing
to “repulsion, distrust and failure to understand, due to
colouring”. There would be an abhorrence also of Chinese
because of their Oriental features. Other English people said that
“Negroes would be nice if you could see them white instead of
black”; “I dislike Negroes and Chinese because they are coloured;
I know they can’t help it, but no more can I help disliking them”.
Chinese and Japanese are also disliked “because of their slit
eyes and yellow skin” — “because they move stealthily”; Chinese
“because they have an unhealthy look”. Negroes are disliked
because of their rolling eyes, and because they show the whites
of their eyes. ^

In this type of attitude, the question of associational, emotional
and psychological factors requires careful consideration. A person
who objects to the Chinese because they look “unhealthy” may
unconsciously make some morbid association between skin
colour and disease. On the other hand, the prejudice expressed
may be a rationalisation of some more deeply-seated emotion,
which primarily has no racial connection. Several women who
had never been in social or close proximity to a coloured person

^ The prominence of personal traits in fixing racial attitudes is also endorsed by
an investigation which Miss L. G. Sparling carried out in 1934. Her subjects were
asked to say why they liked or disliked certain people. The reasons given for liking
people fell broadly into three groups: (a) qualities of temperament and character;
specific skills and occupations; (b) nationality; (c) physical qualities. In her results,
“personal attributes of mind and spirit by far exceeded any other factor in the assign-
ment of reasons for definite attitudes towards peoples or nations*’. Yet curiously
enough, in the case of “Negroes”, who were disliked less than Chinese, among the
adult subjects attributes of body such as “ugly”, “colour”, and “physical” provided
something like two-thirds of the reasons advanced for dislike. Among the children
disliking Negroes, on the other hand, only about one-quarter of the reasons for dis-
like fell into this category. The contrast was even more marked in the case of the
Chinese who were disliked for cultural reasons, such as “warring”, “cruel”, etc.
In the case of the adult “reaction” to the Chinese, an attribute of a physical kind
accounted for something like four-fifths of their objections.

(Communicated by Miss L. C. Sparling. Miss Sparling worked with groups of
school-children from primary and secondary schools in Hull, and with adult groups
of both sexes, consisting of university graduates and undergraduates at Edinburgh,
Training College students, W.E.A. students, etc. Her total of 365 subjects was
divided approximately evenly between children and adults.)

THE COLOURED MAN THROUGH ENGLISH EYES 229

declared a physical abhorrence of making such a contact, more
particularly with an African. One mentioned the possibility of
his black hand coming into contact with her own white skin.
Another said that she would feel bound either to cross the road
or even to run away for similar emotional reasons, were an
African to approach her in the street. Neither was able to advance
any rational explanation of this type of emotional reaction, and
both confessed themselves somewhat ashamed of it. Such a fear
would appear to correspond in some degree to the “phobia” or
morbid fear of the psychasthenic patient, and it is possible that,
clinically speaking, its aetiology is similar. A phobia is a fear
for which there is no obvious reason. The sufferer is afraid to
walk across an open space or to remain in a closed room. He
recognises that his fear is absurd, and is often very much
ashamed of it, but no amount of persuasion will cause it to
disappear. ^

All this is true of persons who display this kind of aversion
to “colour”, and from the attitude of mind clinically designated
as “phobia” seems to indicate a difference of custom rather than
kind. The “patient” who fears to cross a road, to remain in a
closed room, etc., is regarded by society as somewhat abnormal,
and sometimes for that reason alone comes to regard himself as
“ill”. The “patient” who feels a strong physical repulsion
against touching the hand of a black man may be conscious of her
irrationality, but is not forced by the pressure of normal English
society to look upon herself in any way as pathological. It is
possible, too, that in some cases a physical aversion to colour and
the coloured man may be an unconscious rationalisation from the
social situation itself. It is perhaps significant that such aversions
are expressed quite often by people whose ideas regarding
coloured people and social treatment of them are of the most
liberal order. Even liberal individuals, however, are often, at the
same time, very conscious of their own social position. They
realise the social implications of being seen publicly with a
coloured man, and this conflicts with their ideological standpoint
in the matter. In such cases, the settlement of the “conflict” in
terms of a physical aversion suggests a further mental mechanism
not unfamiliar to the student of psychoanalysis.

^cf. T. A. Ross, “Psycho-Neuroses”, Commot} Neu,ro$es (p. 138), aiiicl compare
3ection 8, chapter 10.

230

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

Through a somewhat similar psychological process, the
“blackness” of the Negro diffuses itself over persons or objects
around. In an hotel at Hull, some English commercial travellers
refused to occupy certain rooms on the grounds that the apart-
ments had been “contaminated” by the presence of some
African guests.^ With this kind of phobia, the degree of
“contamination” increases almost perceptibly with the darkness
of the skin.

On the psycho-analytic plane, too, it would appear as if
the Negro stereotype provides a small section of English society
with a convenient scapegoat and symbol into which various
repressed desires and longings, and sometimes irritations, can
be injected with impunity. There is a fund of risqu^ stories
which circulate readily in English society, in which the sexual

^ Such a situation is much more general on the other side of the Atlantic. Compare
the following parallel from a recent sociological study of racial relations in the
American Deep South:

“The belief in the organic inferiority of the Negro reaches its strongest expression
in the common assertion that the Negroes are ‘unclean* . . . there remains a strong
feeling that the colour of the Negroes is abhorrent and that contact with them may be
contaminating.

“There is generally a strong feeling against eating or drinking from dishes used
by Negroes, and most of the whites provide separate dishes for the use of their servants.
The idea of uncleanliness is also extended to any clothing worn by Negroes, as was
dramatically shown when a Negro customer returned a coat which she had bought
from a white clothing merchant. The clerk was unwilling to accept the coat, and when
the assistant manager accepted it, the clerk said to another clerk: ‘This is perfectly
terrible: I think it is awful. We can’t put that coat back in stock’ . . . She hung it
up very gingerly and didn’t touch it any more than necessary.” {Deep South: A Social
Ajithropological Study of Caste and Class, Allison Davis and B. B. and M. R.
Gardiner, p. i6.)

The implications and associations of the word “black” in English culture are
manifold and interesting. Among the meanings in the OxJojrd English Dictionary
are the following: deeply stained with dirt; soiled, dirty, foul; having dark or deadly
purposes; malignant; pertaining to or involving death, deadly, baneful, sinister,
iniquitous, horribly wicked. Clouded with sorrow or melancholy; dismal, gloomy,
sad — the opposite of bright and cheerful. There are also many expressions in the
English language which denote the sinister meaning that black has held for centuries.
There are the words “blackmail” and “blackball” and “blackleg”. A scoundrel is
called a “blackguard”. The judge wears a “black cap” when condemning a murderer
to be hanged, and witchcraft and necromancy have long been known as the Black
Art from the assumption that black was the devil’s colour. The worshippers of Satan
are said to hold black masses.

Because of its mysterious and unknown quality black is also regarded as the symbol
of ignorance and evil (cf. The Psychology and Tradition of Colour), Similar implications
occur very frequently in folklore ^d legend. In Morte d^ Arthur, for example, the most
crafty and powerful opponent with whom the good knight Sir Gareth is confronted
is the Black Knight. William Blake wrote in his Songs of Innocence —

My mother bore me in a southern wild,

And I am black, but O my soul is white,

White as an angel is the English child,

But 1 am black as though bereaved of light.

THE COLOURED MAN THROUGH ENGLISH EYES 2$ I

propensities of the black man play a prominent part,^ It is
difficult, however, to separate the significant elements in this
respect from other facets of the general cultural background.
Many school books mention coloured peoples only in terms of
cannibalism, polygamy, etc.; the screen provides representations
of the Negro which are rarely anything but servile or grotesque;*
and in not a few examples of popular literature Negro characters
personify, as often as not, the qualities of virility and animalism
more than any others.

5. Economic Competition and Colour-Class-Consciousness

It is almost needless to say that a more important and exten-
sive form of antipathy and prejudice arises out of economic
competition, and, as already mentioned, the depressed condition
of the shipping industry has been an important focal point in
that respect. * It is likewise obvious that many of the prejudices
of hotel and lodging-house keepers are derived directly from the
fear of upsetting their white customers by admitting a coloured
guest. As the manager of a large London hotel is reported to
have declared in a recent incident, “For myself, I don’t care
whether they are black or white or green or yellow; I only carry
on the hotel to meet the requirements of the patrons”.^ The
further ramifications of this aspect of the matter, colour-bar
practices, rentals, letting of houses, etc., have already been

^ cf. W. R. Titterton; “From Theatre to Music Hall” (quoted in Britain by Mass-
Observation) :

“With the passing of the old healthy, sensual (but not sensuous) English dances
came the rushing in of alien elements; chiefest and most deadly, the cake-walk tells
us why the negro and white can never lie down together. It is a grotesque, savage,
and lustful heathen dance, quite proper in Ashanti, but shocking on the boards of a
London hall.**

* See Appendix 11 . “A Note on the Cinema and Racial Attitudes.’* cf. also B.
Lasker, The Racial Attitudes of Children,

® Is it a nice sight, as I walk through the south end of the city of Liverpool, to find
a black settlement, a black body of men — I am not saying a word about their colour — ^
all doing well, and a white body of men who faced the horrors of war, walking the
streets unemployed? Is it a nice sight to see Lascars trotting up the Scotland Road,
and round Cardiff, and to see Chinamen walking along in the affluence that men of the
sea are able to get by constant employment, while Britishers are walking the streets
and going to the public assistance committees?** (Mr. Logan, M.P., in a debate in the
House of Commons, 1934, shipping industry, Hansard^ vol. 295. It should,

perhaps, be added that Mr. Logan’s attack is directed mainly against the alleged
practice of displacing British seamen with cheaper alien labour, in British ships.)

^ Quoted in the Manchester Guardian^ Sept. i943» in reference to the Constantine
incident (quoted in footnote above, p. 224).

NEOROES IN BRITAIN

232

described in dealing with the Cardiff community, and we may
here pass on to discuss the no less important implications of
social prejudice as a further English attitude in this connection.

Some English persons believe that they will jeopardize, if
not lose, their social status in the eyes of their friends and acquaint-
ances by association with a coloured person. ^ Their reaction
might be likened to the hesitation shown by a fashionable or
highly class-conscious person at being seen talking in public to
someone who is shabbily dressed or who speaks with a socially
unacceptable accent. It may aptly be described as colour-class-
consciousness. A woman clerk, asked to explain what the reaction
in her home would be to the introduction of coloured people,
said: “My mother would say, ‘Please don’t bring those people
again, otherwise you will get us a bad name’ ”. A bank manager
living in a select part of the town strongly objected to the idea
of two African students occupying the house next door to him
(his own property), and added, partly in parenthesis, partly in
apology, “Oh, I know these days we are all supposed to be equal”.

Fairly similar objections on the grounds of social prestige
and status may be found among working-class people. A labourer
pointed out that in his home Indians would be classed as “niggers”,
and added that his brother, who was in Egypt with the R.A.F.,
was very disdainful of the “Wogs”. A boot and shoe operative,
asked to say if a coloured man could live in his house, pointed out
that however sympathetic he might be towards the idea, it was
impossible to overlook the fact that he and his wife had to live
in harmony with their friends and neighbours, if all was to be
well. To go against public opinion, rightly or wrongly, might
mean a drop in their social position.

“It may be thought that to working class people like ourselves, living in a
working class locality, such things as social status would be of little value, but
it is quite reasonable to assume that to be cut or ignored by one’s acquaintances
is felt jujt as much here as in any other of the social stratifications of our com-
munity.”

^ Though it would be difficult to say to what extent attitudes involving the social
inferiority of the coloured man in thb country derive from the political status of the
Colonies themselves, the implications can be seen in various other and cultural forms.
There is a prolific use in official and other annotmeements of such expressions as
“trusteeship”, “backward peoples”, etc. “To have” or “own” Colonies is a favourite
expression, and one observes the same feature in an occasional newspaper caption,
such as “We gave it (Java) back to Holland”. Advertisements sometimes typify
this in a slightly different way. A well-known firm of tobacco manufacturers announce
that their mixture is smoked “even on the Edge of Nowhere”, i.e. in Waziristan.

THE COLOURED MAN THROUGH ENGLISH EYES 233

Similar points are brought out in the study of the Cardiff
coloured community. Amongst audiences of soldiers to whom the
writer spoke on the “colour problem”, there was obviously a
strong desire that coloured people (in the abstract) should be
treated on terms of equality, and yet at the same time an equally
strong reluctance to face the logical implications of equal opport-
unity, e.g. the possibility of having to obey coloured officers.
One speaker made this point very clear when he quoted an
instance when the men had refused to obey even a white French
officer. Another, and usually smaller section of the audience,
who had actually had first-hand contact with coloured people
on service abroad, were rather more positive in their attitude
that the coloured man was either inferior or “repulsive” (mainly,
so far as could be gathered, owing to his different culture) and
should be treated accordingly. Somewhat similar implications
of social status in a working-class milieu are made evident by the
following communication from the same boot and shoe operative
(a W.E.A. student). He suggests that working-class prejudice,
however, would be short-lived:

Just what strain a coloured lodger would put upon our relations with our
neighbours, or rather our neighbours’ relations with us, is difficult to estimate.
We feel that the chances are all against our being openly cut or insulted in any
way; it is far more likely that our neighbours would discuss the matter behind
our backs; as a result of this they (our neighbours) would not care to be seen
talking or calling on us in the usual manner. This condition is likely to be of a
temporary nature; it would probably end after one or two neighbours had
called for change for the meter or some other such convenience. In short,
whilst a coloured lodger would be likely to cause some loss in social prestige,
the loss would not be of such a nature as to cause any very serious incon-
venience.

This form of social prejudice seems to be linked up very
closely with the fear of intermarriage, more particularly of
an English woman with a coloured man. On this point the
correspondent quoted goes on to remark:

We can imagine what the comments of our neighbours would be if we took
in a coloured lodger along with a daughter of marriageable age. People would
shake their heads and say it was disgraceful, and say that we were lacking in
our duty to our children. We mention this last point because in our particular
situation, the sex factor need not be considered of great importance. As we
are now, a coloured visitor would affect us but little in this respect; however,
say he started walking out with the girl across the road, it would be a much
more serious matter for the girl. However innocent such an affair may be,
we feel sure that the girl would go down quickly in the estimation of our
neighbours. For a girl to walk out with a coloured man would mean a very

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

234

definite loss in social standing; the girl would be generally considered to be a
very loose and undesirable sort of person.

Discussing the same subject, a middle-class correspondent
of the Spectator wrote:

To come to concrete facts, householders with opportunities for arranging
social amenities hesitate to throw open their hospitality unreservedly to in-
dividuals of races who, they believe, will mistake their welcome as an implicit
invitation to form attachments to their young hosts and hostesses. ^

A singfe woman of thirty, asked her attitude in respect to some
coloured soldiers who had recently been billeted in her town,
replied that she would like to be friendly towards them, but
“in K . . .no nice girl could invite back a coloured soldier”.

6. The Question of Intermarriage

There is no doubt that prejudice is most quickly and emotion-
ally aroused by relations between white females and coloured
males. The replies and comments of audiences of soldiers to
whom the writer spoke were quite succinct in this respect.
Several speakers said that they had no objection to coloured
people in England “in their own place”, but that they should
leave white girls alone. Many other English people make this or a
similar point if they speak without diffidence. The questions of
“contamination” and of “lowering” the race were again often
raised, and give point to the contention that the real objection
or aversion may be to a lowering of the social status of the group
or family to which the person belongs, rather than to the sexual
implications of a marriage or of racial mixture. ^ Other men
spoke of the emotional effect the sight of a white girl, with a

^ Spectator y 1931.

* cf. in this respect the following remarks of R. E. Park:

“One principle which seems to have been everywhere operative in determin-
ing the amount of miscegenation that anywhere exists, as well as the various
permutations and patterns of race relations dependent on it, has been the
principle of hypergamy, as it is called in India. This is a rule which in Hindu
Law prescribes that a woman may only marry into a caste that is equal to, or
higher than, the one in which she is bom. . . .

“The principle which is thus recognised in Hindu custom and law seems to
be a principle in human nature — one of those principles which operate spontane-
ously and needs no formal legislation to insure its enforcement. It is the principle
which is represented in the familiar phrase: ‘How would you like to have your
daughter marry a Negro?* a phrase which possibly has its counterpart else-
where. . .

“Race Relations and Frontiers,” in Race and Culture Contacts.

THE COLOURED MAN THROUGH ENGLISH EYES 235

coloured man had on them, and this point is frequently raised
even by official spokesmen and other apologists over relevant issues:

I regret the action of those proprietors of dancing halls and restaurants.
They are, however, private people and, in the first place, they are running
their establishments for commercial purposes. If they find that those com-
mercial purposes are advanced by excluding or placing restrictions on certain
patrons, they doubtless consider that they have a right to do so, from the
commercial point of view. It will be noticed that these cases always have
reference to establishments where dancing takes place; but this is really part
of the larger question of the relations of the sexes in this country with those of
other races. . . . ‘

♦

Other empirical data also clearly indicated this aspect of the
matter. A woman labour manager, aged 25, asked what kind
of reception coloured guests introduced into her home would
receive, replied that it would be as favourable as that accorded
to any other visitor, but if there were any indications of an
“affair” developing, visits might be discouraged. A woman
typist aged 29 pointed out similarly that there would be no
encouragement to continue such a friendship, and another
young woman said that, while her parents would not object to a
coloured person entering their home, they would not wish him to
come frequently. A schoolmaster (age 46) disapproved of social
contacts between English people and Chinese and Indians “in
theory”. Another schoolmaster, whose disapproval of coloured
people entering his home “is based on 8 to 10 years’ experience
of Zulus in South Africa and secondhand information from an
Indian civilian”, is "’very strongly against any social contacts
which run any risk of encouraging or permitting mixed marriages
between the coloured and white races”. He believes that such
affairs are disastrous to both sides, but has no objection to
coloured people in their own country and in their own place.

An objective appraisal of this point of view must recognise
that the “dangers” of mixed marriages pass so readily as popular
currency that it might be fairer to regard them as social attitudes
rather than personal rationalisations. When the assumption
regarding the harmful effect of hybridisation has been made
socially and is transmitted as part of the cultural heritage, it is
invidious to assume that an individual attitude on this point
necessarily arises out of “intellectual dishonesty”. What Lasker has
noted in respect of the “engraving” of racial attitudes on the child

^ Drummond Shiels in House of Commons — Hansard,

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

236

is no less true of the adult. ^ In the circumstances, granting that his
objection will receive the sanction of surrounding opinion, it is
difficult to see how a conscientious parent could help but demur
at a son’s or daughter’s contracting an alliance of this kind. It
is no less obvious that in most cases the “rationalisation” is
made from a confusion of cultural with biological evidence. This
consideration undoubtedly helps to account for, if it does not
entirely explain, the very typical remark of an English mother
that she had no objection to introducing coloured people in her
home, but “having seen results of intermarrying with West Indians”
had a great objection to intermarriage with any coloured person,
and thought that difficulties might arise in respect of her daughter.

It has certainly to be recognised that a very large number of
English people regard racial intermixture as biologically as well
as socially disastrous. Popular knowledge on the subject of human
heredity has not yet emerged from the mystical stage, as current
beliefs about the “science” of phrenology indicate: even the blood,
despite all the outcry against German racialist philosophy, is
often thought to fulfil the function more scientifically and pro-
saically attributed to the germ plasm. ^

Nor is this popular outlook surprising when reputable men
of science in Britain have added their condemnation, often in
emotional terms, of “hybridisation” —

Hence, it is difficult to imagine why Sir Arthur Keith, ignoring the generally
known evidence of history and anthropology, assumes that cross-breeding
between Europeans, Negroes and Mongols, even if such monstrous miscegena-
tion were universal, would afford “the sole way of establishing peace and good
will.” 3

^ Bruno Lasker, Racial Attitudes of Children.

“The race attitudes of the average adolescent are the combined result of so
many voluntary and involuntary teachings that in so far as they seem permanently
engraved at that time of life . . . it is no longer possible to distinguish the various
causative factors, or to evaluate them.”

® See the present writer’s letter in Nature, Feb. 1942. The compiler of a book
on modern magic and mystical beliefs would find much material in contemporary
explanations of heredity. Jung’s “racial consciousness” seems to have been widely
disseminated and accepted in the genetical sense, and Lombroso’s criminal type, and
the “inheritance” of moral traits form part of everyday language. As an example of
this kind of fiction, Mrs. Garland Anderson tells the story of an acquaintance who
was informed by a young doctor that if ever she allowed herself to become intimate
with a Negro at any time in her life, even if on one occasion only, and should later
marry a white man, she would never be free of this taint (even though years had
elapsed) and would probably have a black child. (Doris Garland Anderson, Nigger
Lover, p. 190.)

® Professor Elliot Smith in an article in the Spectator, 1931 . Professor J. W. Gregory
has an article in the same periodical a few weeks earlier, in the same strain.

THE COLOURED MAN THROUGH ENGLISH EYES

237

7. The Appeal to ‘Tnnate'" and Cultural Differences

Another form of prejudice is sometimes advanced on the
score of ‘‘innate’’ and cultural differences. In substantation of
this, it is frequently declared that some kind of natural aversion
exists between different racial groups, or, more positively, that
Man possesses some instinct of clannishness which is the “incipient
stage of specific aversion”.^ Such arguments carried to their
logical conclusion would mean, presumably, that individuals
born of different racial groups, as, for example, Africans and
English people, arrive in the world with some inherent biological
quality which gives them by reason of their racial differentiation
incipient aversion for each other. ^ Commenting on the “Colour
Prejudice” question, an editorial in West Africa remarks:

In the reports of various Colonial Departments, how often do we find
reference to the fact that the most difficult part of the lot of the pioneer is to
overcome the prejudice or fear felt quite naturally by the indigenous people
for the newcomer? Missionaries tell the same story. Such colour prejudice
is but natural and, human nature being what it is, it is no surprise to find
it in “White” and “Coloured” without discrimination. . . ,

Nor does this apply only between “black” and “white”. The writer, in
the previous war, had a similar experience with American doctors who were
acquiring experience in British military hospitals. Upon arrival, the first
question put was not “What was the matter?” but “We are American doctors,
do you mind being examined and treated by npn-British officers?” — a clear
recognition of the possibility of racial susceptibility. (My italics.)

^ Sir Arthur Keith. “On Certain Factors concerned in the Evolution of Human
Races,” LR.A.L, vol. xlvi, 1916.

® On this question, Lapiere and Farnsworth comment as follows: “Since the date
of J. B. Watson’s classical experiments on the new-born, data have accumulated
which indicate that few if any defensive or other responses characterize the infant
at birth. . . . The behaviour in the main is generalized and diffuse, being particular-
ized at a much later date.” (Lapiere and Farnsworth, Social Psychology.)

Lasker {op. cit., pp. 369-70) remarks: —

“As soon as we survey the variety of such (racial) aversions — even when we limit
ourselves to content only and overlook the variety of forms — we discover no single
instinct, nor even a keyboard of instincts, can explain so mixed an assortment of
reactions. Modern psychological research here comes to our rescue and confirms our
suspicion that much which people have been assumed to be born with in mental
habits has really been acquired — and sometimes quite painfully — in the early years
of life. ...

“Nevertheless, it remains an open question, which scientific observation and test-
ing has failed so far to answer, whether normally physical difference does create a
distinctive sense, either of aversion, or of special attraction. In other words, the part
played by instinct in race feeling, if it plays a part at all, is probably smaller in child
life than in the later stages of adolescence and young adulthood; and whatever may
be the outcome of further studies of innate reactions of that kind we already know
that among the total environmental influences upon the child’s race feelings they
almost disappear into insignificance*”

238 NEGROES IN BRITAIN

The “strangeness” of the coloured person as well as cultural
differences are often quoted as reason for prejudice. A woman
teacher was unwilling to make contact because she did “not like
the smell of foreigners”, and a younger girl said that a coloured
person would receive a kindly but condescending reception in
her home on account of his being a foreigner. Another person
said it was simply because coloured people “looked different”
that they would meet with antagonism. The insular nature of this
type of attitude was summarized by another speaker who quoted
the saying that “the dagoes begin the other side of the Channel”. ^
Another Englishman remarked that the arrival of evacuees in his
village had nearly caused a revolution, let alone the question of
coloured people being received there.

Other people explain their attitudes or prejudices towards
coloured people more deliberately, and often apologetically in
terms of difference in habits and customs. A member of the A.T.S.,
for example, asked if coloured people knew how to behave
“socially”, and frequent comments and inquiries on this matter
were received from audiences of soldiers. A more fundamental
“objection” on the score of the position and status of women in
coloured communities is also met with on some occasions. A
woman writing in the Spectator (April 1931) remarks:

I have no prejudice against colour, but I strongly object to the treatment
of my sex by the majority of coloured people. When I see a veiled woman, it
is as if she shouted at me “My menfolk are barbarians”.

A somewhat similar point is made also by a member of the male
sex, and in it may perhaps be seen an interesting illustration of
the principle of hypergamy previously referred to:

Equality of status between Englishmen and Indians would involve the
admission of Indians on an equal status with ourselves with our women; that
is what gives us pause. Indians cannot but look on our women as they do
on their own; naturally they are at liberty to treat their women as they like,
and the method they adopt is entirely their own affair, but equality of status
would involve free intermarriage between the two races. Once married to an
Indian, an Englishwoman would find herself in the same position as an
Indian woman, and that is what we wfah to avoid. *

^ fhe writer was once informed by an Esthonian girl who came to England
without knowing the language that, until she saw the words in print, she had always
assumed that the expression “damned foreigner” was a single word.

* Correspondence in The Spectator, 1934.

THE COLOURED MAN THROUGH ENGLISH EYES

239

8 . Favourable Attitudes — Emotive and Ideological

Favourable attitudes towards, the coloured man, and the
Negro in particular, are as varied in character as unfavourable
and prejudicial ones. It is interesting, too, to find that social
considerations, somewhat similar to those quoted above, often
modify the favourable kind \yith the proviso, for example, that
coloured people “should keep their place”. A labourer corres-
pondent was prepared to treat them as he would his own race,
but would be “annoyed if they were ‘cocky’ ”. A schoolmaster,
strongly in favour of fair treatment for the African, referred to a
statement by a West Indian, a popular local character, in which
the latter was alleged to have declared that, if the coloured
members of the Empire were not voluntarily accorded equality,
they would seek it in a more militant way. The informant did not
think such words consonant with the “sportsman” he knew the
speaker to be, and described them as “truculent”.

Similar implications are much more definite on the subject
of intermarriage even when the person concerned would other-
wise countenance the idea of social relationships between white
and black. A well-known missionary spokesman argues most
strongly for “mutual respect and friendliness” between Africans
and Europeans, but is against intermarriage on the ground that
cultural and traditional differences make its fulfilment difficult.^
Both favourable and less favourable attitudes on this matter tend,
in fact, to lend additional force to Stratton’s theory, that racial
prejudice is a passing outcome of a need of defence, an attitude
of emotional guardedness of race toward race, a group reaction
to threatened or experienced losses.^

Other sympathetic attitudes are subject to further methodo-
logical difficulties of interpretation, ^ as when they are displayed
as a concomitant of what is known in Marxian language as the
“class-struggle”. Since he is conceptually the victim of the same
exploitative and economic agencies as themselves, the holders

^ G. W. Broomfield, Colour Conflict: Race Relations in Africa, pp. 126-39. The fact
that difficulties over cultural mixture within the same racial group are raised less often
at the present time is perhaps an indication that the race problem is succeeding the
class problem in importance so far as this country is concerned.

® G. M. Stratton, Social Psychology of International Conduct, 1929, pp. 45-65.

® For a discussion of such pitfalls see Raymond Firth, Sociological Review, vol. 31
(quoted in chapter i).

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

240

of such views regard the coloured person as a member of what
Sumner would call their “In-group”. Thus sometimes, by
sponsoring the coloured cause, they are able to find an outlet for
their political sympathies as well as their frustrations and dissatis-
factions. ^ A “Serving Soldier’s Wife” wrote in a daily newspaper
that “the insult to Learie Constantine is a boomerang which hits
every man and woman serving their countries in this war.
Is this a foretaste of the democracy to come?”

In a somewhat similar sense, the extent to which such favour-
able attitudes are bound up with emotive factors is shown by the
warmth with which the cause of the coloured against the white
American soldier was taken up in a number of British rural
areas. It was said that the white American had too much money
to spend, that his manners were bad, his habits objectionable,
and that he was unfair to the coloured soldier.^ Many of the
English townspeople where coloured troops were stationed,
asserted strongly that they “preferred” the coloured Americans
to the white. They spoke approvingly of their courtesy, and
noted the “Blackies” as being especially “careful”, “reserved”,
“self-controlled” and “disciplined”, and construed the situation
in terms of the Negro troops having been “cowed” by past
inter-racial experiences in the States. Subsequently, with the
develppment of social and sex contacts in their logical form,
epithets seem to have become modified to a type more usual to
the prevaihng racial situation in this country. As a rider to this,
an Englishman wrote in The Times:

I am the manager of a snack bar in Oxford and have had a rather un-

^ This point is brought out also in the questions which are asked at Labour,
Rotary and other meetings addressed by coloured speakers. The Secretary of the
League of Coloured Peoples reports that among other enquiries he received the
following :

“Are the right men sent out to the Colonies?’’

“Are there too many pukka-sahibs in the Colonies?”

“Why was forced labour introduced into the Colonies where there is no
popular representation?”

^ When, for example, white Americans remonstrated with a landlady for serving
coloured customers in her public house, her reply, “Their money is as good as yours,
and we prefer their company”, is quite significant. A public house in Bristol is said
to have anticipated such measures by the display of a notice reading “Only blacks
served here”.

There is no doubt that these anti-white attitudes were considerably enhanced
by various segregative “orders” as well as by requests from the American military
authorities to the effect that white and coloured troops should not use the same civilian
canteens or other places of entertainment, (cf. K. L. Little in a letter to the Ntw
StaUsman and Nation^ August, 1942.)

THE COLOURED MAN THROUGH ENGLISH EYES 24 1

fortunate state of affairs which is beginning to exist in this country brought
very forcibly to my notice. The other night a coloured U.S. soldier came
into our establishment and very diffidently presented me with an open letter
from his commanding officer, explaining that “Pte. — is a soldier in the U.S.
Army, and it is necessary that he sometimes has a meal, which he has on
occasion found difficult to obtain. I would be grateful if you would look after
him.”

Naturally we looked after him to the best of our ability, but I could not
help feeling ashamed that in a country where even stray dogs are “looked
after” by special societies, a citizen of the world, who is fighting the world’s
battle for freedom and equality, should have found it necessary to place himself
in this humiliating position. Had there been the slightest objection from other
customers, I should not have had any hesitation in asking them all to leave. . . .

Other sympathetic attitudes among English people are
based on abstract principles of a more conventional nature,
such as Christianity, as well as on individual ethical codes. A
housewife, aged 37, remarked that

It is only in recent years that I really bothered about (coloured people) . . .
because the impression we were given in school, and ako in church, was that
they were alright as a people to preach religion to, or to have as servants, but
companions — it wasn’t done. How far this is altered now, I don’t quite know,
but I try to teach my children to take a friendly interest in everyone, irrespec-
tive of race or creed. Surely, if God is the Father and Maker of everyone,
there should be no such thing as Colour Bar?

A young man, a farm labourer, takes an even more idealistic
view:

I should like to be present at a High Mass where the priest, deacon, and
subdeacon were (in any order) black, white, and yellow: and I should like to
receive the Blessed Sacrament from the hands of a coloured priest. This would
declare the catholicity of the Church and show that all arc one in Christ.

Another individual, a railway clerk, remarks, somewhat
self-consciously perhaps, that as chairman of a Branch of the
International Friendship League he had influenced his mother
and father so that

“they would be prepared to see the best in any coloured person although
feeling a little self-embarrassed at first,”

and another Englishwoman points out that

“as a family we try to believe that social conduct and education can make
for world-wide co-operation.”

Still another person observes, perhaps with more conviction than
intuition, that he '‘always says that a nigger is a white man
painted black”.

9

242

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

9. Empiricism in Racial Relationships

Some English people are empirical rather than ideological
or prejudiced in their approach to this matter. A Congregational
Minister points out that he has

mixed socially and played tennis with a number of coloured people and
haven’t felt any different reaction from meeting with white people. The whole
reaction depends ypon the type of person. . . .

A watch repairer says:

I have mixed a little with (coloured people) and have known some, and
socially they have not seemed to be different to others of the white race, and
better than some of the white people I have known, but then I have not mixed
with them under their Native Conditions.

Others stress the fact that their reaction to coloured people
depends on the individual rather than the race of the person
in question. A young woman aged 26, whose opinion is mostly
derived from meeting Indians and one Japanese at college and at
lectures and discussions, has realised that they are “exactly the
same in their make-up as any other human being”. After the
initial “shyness” had worn off, a Civil Servant thinks, he would
more or less forget colour and “regard them as ordinary persons”.
This attitude is amplified considerably in the remarks of an
English writer in the Negro Anthology, and it characterizes, in
particular, a large number of the intelligentsia^ It is on the increase,
also, in other circles. We may note in the same connection that
the holding of liberal attitudes on the colour question ranks to
some extent as the criterion of higher-class membership in some
sub-divisions of the social system —

My relations with Negroes are exactly the same as my relations with
anyone else, of any colour whatsoever; that is, they are relations with indi-
viduals, simply. There are no nuances peculiar to my friendships with
coloured men and women, other than the allowances which one must make for
any psychological variation from one’s own race-type; and this applies equally
to any friend one may have who is not of the same European race as oneself.
There are, naturally enough, a number of Negroes whom I have met, with
whom I have nothing whatever in common, in just the same way that I have
nothing in common with a number of my fellow-countrymen. . . .

I am perpetually reminded in conversations with Negroes that I have only
to close my eyes for it to be impossible for me to discover the pigmentation of
the person to whom I am talking. -

^ cf. Empire f and other publications of the Fabian Colonial Bureau.

* Anthony Butts in The Negro Anthology, p. 549.

THE COLOURED MAN THROUGH ENGLISH EYES 243;

Other English people are attracted to Negroes and other
coloured peoples for reasons it is less easy to classify. With
some it is the musical and artistic talent of various Negro artists,
such as Paul Robeson; or the music of Negro spirituals. Some
admire the cricketing abilities of West Indian teams, and of
Indian players. Others admire and are attracted by the physical
looks of Indians, Malays, etc. With a further small group, it is
the good humour with which many Negro people accept a joke
at their own expense which is their main recommendation.

10. Present Trend of Liberalism

The fact that relatively few English people have made close
contact with coloured individuals means that it is as difficult
to assess the real content of sympathetic as of antipathetic attitudes
towards them. There is no doubt that a great deal of latent
friendliness underlies the surface appearance of apathy and even
of displayed prejudice in a large number of cases, and many
instances could be quoted of personal contacts having produced
a striking “conversion” in this respect on the part of the English,
individual or individuals concerned. Naturally, in the circum-
stances, this is far more common when the coloured person is welli
educated. ^ There are also many English people in every section
of society who display a complete absence of colour-awareness as
well as of colour prejudice, and who claim, probably correctly,
that they have given the problem of white-coloured contacts so
little thought as to be virtually unaware of its existence. Par-
ticularly at the universities, so far as can be gathered, the process of
“normal” interactions is on the increase, and is modified only by a
sense of “shyness” in some instances and by the “older” attitudes
of parents. ^ Concrete examples of this occur in the fairly recent
appointment of West Indians on successive occasions as President
of the Oxford Union, of a West African as President of the
Philosophical Society of Trinity College, Dublin, and of individual

^ Officials of welfare organisations to whom African students are sent for trainings
in the Vacation, frequently express quite a considerable degree of astonishment at
the fact that their visitors not only speak “such good English**, but arc as “intelligent*^
as the English students met with in the course of similar activities.

* This point has been made to the present writer by elderly Englishwomen, point-
ing out quite objectively that they are unable to shake off their “old-fashioned ideas**^
about coloured people.

9 *

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

244

West Africans to undergraduate positions of importance in various
Cambridge colleges, while the participation of coloured students
in university sport is so well known as hardly to require mention. ^
The existence of various voluntary societies and organisations to
provide hospitality for coloured visitors is another index of
similar favourable attitudes.

Again, as already mentioned, within the mixed dockland
communities social intercourse between white and coloured
neighbours is the rule rather than the exception, and a further
interesting sidelight on the wider aspects of this matter might be
•quoted in the case of Hull. The coloured population there is
;small, and it is sociologically significant that, from the point of
view of the townspeople, it constitutes no special “problem”.
The writer paid visits to some dozen boarding establishments and
private hotels, as in Cardiff (see section i of the Chapter on
Sociology), and in answer to similar enquiries about accommoda-
tion for a coloured person received favourable replies in most
cases. ^

In commenting finally, therefore, on the Englishman’s
attitude towards coloured people in this country, these considera-
tions should be borne in mind, as well as the possibility of
methodological disabilities on the part of their investigator.
It is quite evident that the course of the war and greatly increased
political and press prompting, along with the presence of large
numbers of coloured troops, have, in the last few years, stimulated
public interest very considerably. Just as in the converse situation
of prejudice, many English individuals who have never personally
met a coloured man have had their attention and their interest
aroused. In the broader sense, too, the traditional mainspring
of Negro friendship, vested institutionally in Nonconformity and
the missionary societies, provides a fairly continuous and far-
reaching undercurrent of liberalism. ^ All this, along with the
ideological reasons for waging the Second World war, has made
a great contribution on the side of sympathy and friendliness, and
although many such attitudes are vague enough to be described

^For example, a West African recently captained the Oxford University Football
XI and a West Indian the Cricket XI of the London School of Economics.

^ These remarks are based on a short stay in Hull during which there was oppor-
tunity of making fairly wide enquiries on the subject in question.

® In October, 1943, the Conference of British Missionary Societies tabled the
'-^‘Colour Bar” as a subject for discussion and attention at its annual conference.

THE COLOURED MAN THROUGH ENGLISH EYES 245

as potential rather than actual, they bespeak a trend which may
have considerable effect on the future relations of black and white
in Great Britain. In his own academic capacity, the present
writer has received in recent years a great many enquiries on
the “colour question”,^ as well as requests for introductions to
West African and other coloured “nationalities”, and for coloured
speakers to address public meetings. The experiences of indi-
vidual coloured persons themselves, particularly if they are in the
popular eye, strikingly confirm the same point in some instances.
Allowing even for certain methodological difficulties in the
interpretation of these developments, there is no doubt that
English “resistance” has broken down considerably during the
War, and that mutual respect is on the increase, though some-
what slowly.

1 1 . Summary

In summarizing the attitudes and impressions quoted above,
it may be said that English people display for the most part
tolerant if somewhat prejudicial ideas regarding coloured people.
Many of these ideas, attitudes and notions are very generalized,
and as a rule do not become markedly antipathetic or antagon-
istic unless some form of actual social or physical contact with a
coloured person seems likely to take place. In this respect, the
question of intermarriage seems of paramount importance.
Nevertheless, it is a moot point whether the unfavourable reactions
promoted do not in fact derive from the implications of other
attributes, in particular of the low status of coloured persons
in Britain and of various rather vague and repellent character-
istics and associations. Though held rather widely, such pre-
judices, with the exception of “superiority attitudes”, do not seem
to be strongly ingrained, and in the case of many English people
seem capable of considerable modification, if not total elimination.

The differing type of contact which the Englishman may
have with coloured people seems to make a considerable difference
in his impressions and in his reactions towards them as a whole.
This process of arguing from the particular to the general is a

^ In reply to two letters which appeared respectively in the Manchester Guardian
and The Times offering a copy of a forthcoming Report on the educational aspects of
the “colour question” (see previous footnote), the present writer received more than
150 requests, mainly from persons with educational and semi-public connections.

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

246

very familiar one. It is almost invidious to point out that it is
rendered the easier when, as in the present case, all members
of the favourably or unfavourably affected group are recognizable
by a distinctive trait, such as their colour. In the case of racial
prejudice.

Physical differences serve as indices to the inferior group, marking its
members as strangers and accelerating or symbolizing the really fundamental
differences ... it is easier to detect the enemy when certain quantitative
differences mark him; it is easier to attack him when these differences are
readily pointed out.^

Without speculating too far, it seems fairly obvious that the
most unfavourable impressions have been gained by English
people living abroad in Colonial countries, or by those whose
contacts with coloured people have been made in terms of the
dockland populations of this country. On the other hand,
contacts with coloured persons of “good class”, in England,
appear usually to have left a very favourable impression, particu-
larly where the person concerned showed ability to participate
successfully in English social customs, including athletics,^
or displayed a class outlook judged to be appropriate. Various
sources of information, such as books, historical literature,
lectures, the cinema,^ etc., are all likely media in cases of both
favourable and unfavourable impressions, and the same applies
in regard to. missionaries and friends who are living or have lived
abroad. Probably the effect of primary and face to face contacts
is fairly positive and definite in affecting subsequent attitudes,
but it is impossible to gauge specifically either these or the former
considerations. Nevertheless, it is largely on that basis, as well
as more subtly and fundamentally, perhaps, on the broader
basis of the English social heritage (as described in the preceding
chapter), that the coloured man is seen through the eyes of most
English people.

^ F. Brown, op. ciU Compare this remark with Hitler’s use of the yellow star of
David for Jews, and the habit in certain towns in the American South of printing
the names of Negroes in the telephone directory with asterisks attached.

^ As a schoolmaster correspondent puts it in reference to a Japanese family: “the
two boys were good footballers and so could mix easily with the rest”. The same point
is often made by coloured folk themselves in explaining their social acceptance by
En^ish people.

* For a brief review of the part of the Cinema in this respect, see Appendix II.

THE COLOURED MAN’S REACTION TO THE ENGLISH 247

CHAPTER 10

THE COLOURED MAN’S REACTION TO THE ENGLISH

I . Introduction

In addition to the several thousands of West Africans, West
Indians, Arabs, Indians, Chinese, etc., who, as seamen, have
made permanent or temporary homes in the ports, other coloured
“immigrants” into Great Britain comprise several hundreds of
university students, a number of professional people, doctors
and lawyers from various “coloured” countries of the Empire;
numbers of men and women, mostly from the West Indies, in
various branches of the entertainment industry; and others
fulfilling private or miscellaneous roles in a variety of occupations
from wardens of hostels to racecourse touts. During the Second
World war, the total was substantially increased by the arrival
of over one thousand technical and skilled workers from the
Colonies to work mainly in British ordnance and aircraft factories.
In addition, several hundreds of foresters from British Honduras
worked at camps in Scotland and northern England.

Excluding the Colonial ‘enclaves’ in Cardiff, Liverpool and
other i)orts, the great majority of coloured people are temporary
residents, but the stay of nearly all, including the war workers,
lasts at least three years or even longer. The students arrive at
ages varying from 18 to as old as 45. Practically all of them have
received a secondary education in some school at home, very often
a missionary one, and occasionally in Britain itself, and quite a
large proportion have reached the Intermediate standard of Lon-
don University before their arrival. Nigeria, with a population
nearly seven times as large cis that of any other colony in British
West Africa, sends the largest number, followed by the Gold
Coast, Sierra Leone and other West and East African Colonies.
Most West Indian students come from the largest island, Jamaica,
others from British Guiana on the mainland, or from the smaller
islands of St. Lucia, Antigua, Barbados, etc., and some from
Bermuda. Other non-European students are headed in numbers
by Indians, who until very recently constituted by far the largest
proportion of all non-Europeans at British universities. There are

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

248

also much smaller numbers of Chinese, Malays, Iraqis, Egyptians,
etc. Most of the African and West Indian students study law and
medicine; up to the present a relatively small number have taken
courses in such subjects as natural sciences, engineering,
economics, theology, arts, sociology, and anthropology. ^ Women
students come over almost entirely to study nursing and hygiene,
but a few also take arts courses, medicine or education. The
women read relatively rarely for university degrees, and take
their training mainly at the London hospitals.^

Most of these students come from homes which, by Colonial
and West African standards in particular, must be reckoned
wealthy. Even if a Government or other scholarship is won, the
expense of living in England for three, sometimes four or more
years, requires substantial assistance from home. For non-
scholarship scholars it may be reckoned that the cost of such an
English education at, say, Oxford or Cambridge, will entail a
capital outlay of rather more than ;^i,ooo. At other universities,
bearing in mind the fact that a medical course is longer than most,
the expenses of quite a number of students will hardly be less. ^
In general, therefore, it may be said that most of these young
men and women, whether from the West Indies or West Africa,
come from homes which enjoy quite a high standard of living by
local standards.

The next group, that of professional men, is a small but more
or less permanent one. Most of them have studied as well as
lived and practised in England, some of them for thirty years or
more. Several have married English wives and brought up
families, and established close and important connections in
English life. They represent a small but fairly “assimilated”
group. In the remaining groups, status and length of stay are
apt to be as variable as occupation. Quite a number, however,
enjoy a high standard of living. The last and most transient
group, the West Indian technicians, represent in the main an

^ Ibid, The reason given for this relative disregard of courses other than medicine
and law is in the main an economic and political one; that the posts to which they
should lead are very restricted and are filled largely by Europeans.

* A new and recent departure in this respect is the institution by the Colonial
OflSce of a Colonial Social Science training course, carried on under the auspices of
the London School of Economics. Some forty men and women from various Colonial
countries are at present taking this (1944).

® Misunderstanding on this point in the past has meant that individual students
have been unable to finish their courses, and in a few cases have literally been stranded
in Britain.

THE COLOURED MAN’s REACTION TO THE ENGLISH 249

artisan class. Some, but by no means all, have received a second-
ary education, as well as a training in some technical skill. In
general the social background of most of them may be said
to approximate to that of what in England is called “lower
middle class”.

2. The West Indian and African Backgrounds

Though nearly all the African students come from homes
in the towns of the Coastal area, their “European” experience is
varied. Some, who have attended boarding schools such as
Achimota, have been brought up on thoroughly English lines,
much like those of an English public school. At the same time as
they speak and take pride in their own African tongue, Yoruba,
Fanti, Twi, etc., their manner of speaking English differs but
little from that of an English boy of similar education and
social status. The educational course they have followed is the
same in most respects as that of an English school. They take
the same examinations in almost the same subjects, and partici-
pate broadly in the same games and leisure-time activities as an
English boy. They are fairly cognizant, not only of English
customs and etiquette, but of the general and less subtle psycho-
logical implications of English culture. To a greater extent the
same applies to other Africans whose parents were educated in
England, and who follow in all essential details European
customs and practices in their homes. Other students have a
slightly different background. They come from homes which,
though largely Europeanized, still follow a number of African
customs and forms of social etiquette, and in which an African
language rather than English is the usual medium of communi-
cation. The last group in particular find some difficulty in settling
down “socially” in England. Their pronunciation and in some
cases their understanding of English is not quite so good. They
are less familiar with English notions of hospitality, and with
minor points of social etiquette and conversational technique.
These factors make against them mainly in terms of social inter-
course with English people, and tend to set up obstacles. ^

^ One minor instance of “misunderstanding** in this respect arises from the greater
degree of deference paid to older people in West Africa by the young, and is re-
sponsible for giving English hosts the impression that individual young Africans arc
unwilling or unable to converse freely with them.

250

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

Africans of both categories come to England, in the main,
with a marked desire, acquired educationally and in other ways
on the West Coast, to emulate even more purposefully European
standards of behaviour, incentives, and goals. The privilege as
well as the prestige of belonging to the British Empire has in
most cases been strongly impressed on them. But anxious as they
are to aspire to European and English notions of prestige, they
.are aware, from both general and personal knowledge of the
attitude and behaviour of various British officials and others on
the Coast, that a certain amount of “distance” still separates
them from that goal. Most of them, therefore, are ambitious.
African-conscious to some extent, a little uncertain of their
position, and particularly resentful on racial as well as social
grounds of anything which savours of prejudice and discrimi-
nation.

An attitude somewhat, though not distinctly, different obtains
in the case of the West Indians. The Colonies from which they
come, Jamaica and Barbados in particular, have been European-
ized, or rather “anglicised”, for several hundreds of years. As
the descendants of Africans who were torn away from their
native culture, present and preceding generations of coloured
West Indians have never known any recognized culture other
than an English one. English is the native and universal language
of the West Indies, and English customs, notions of etiquette and
social behaviour have been accepted and followed in “good class”
West Indian homes for nearly a century. Education, too, in
West Indian schools is entirely on English lines, and the school
curricula show few if any divergences from those of an English
secondary school. West Indians are not only taught to regard
themselves as members of one of the oldest of British colonies, but
are proud to think of themselves as British citizens. It is fairly
common for the coloured Jamaican to look upon England,
not merely as his Mother country, but as the “Homeland”,
and to speak familiarly of going to England as “going home”. ^
Such attitudes are a direct result of the presence of the white
planters and Creoles, whose values and standards have been
largely passed on and acquired, not only by their mulatto
children, but .by the greater proportion of the darker-skinned

^This applies also, to some extent, to the Sierra Leone Creole, whose reactions
in some respects approximate closely to those of the Jamaican.

THE COLOURED MAN’S REACTION TO THE ENGLISH 25 1

and Negro inhabitants of the West Indian islands. In that respect
in particular, the background of race relations and racial con-
sciousness is vastly and subtly different from that of the West
African. In the West Indies, the lighter-skinned person through
his approximation to the traditional ruling class regards him-
self as on a higher social plane than one of darker colour. His
lighter skin marks him out in general terms as a member of a
wealthier and more socially favoured group. He is colour-
conscious, therefore, as well as race-conscious, and acutely so,
for two reasons; because prejudice and discrimination mark him
out not only as a member of an inferior race, but in certain
circumstances as also a member of an inferior social class. Most
West Indian students who come to England belong to the
wealthier and generally lighter-skinned class. The West Indian
technicians, however, are much more mixed in colour. These
rather subtle distinctions lietween light and dark and their
implications are neither known nor appreciated in England, with
the result that the West Indian reaction to any obvious or
imagined manifestation of prejudice is resentful, in the belief
that social status in addition to race is being impugned. The
results of this situation will be more obvious from the paragraphs
which follow.

3. The Difficulties of Inter-Racial Contacts in Britain

Perhaps the most fundamental consideration in racial
contacts in Britain is the fact that they are usually extremely
limited in their nature and extent so far as coloured students,
as well as even the more residential coloured population,
are concerned. To a considerable extent they are restricted
mainly to what may be called the categoric type, i.e., with
English persons acting in some official or semi-official character,
such as Government officials, university teachers, and various
others, such as landladies, wardens of hostels, etc., who are
performing economic and other essential services of a similar
kind. Such relationships tend to be relatively impersonal, and
although “normal” acquaintanceship and friendship with
English people are certainly not out of the question, they are

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

252

not readily and easily engendered. Even in the case of the
various welfare organizations which cater specifically for the
cultivation of British and non-European relations and under-
standing, the process is not simply achieved. Difficulties arise
from various considerations. Many English people, who are
willing to offer hospitality to coloured persons, are very badly
informed regarding Colonial and coloured countries and their
peoples and cultures; they tend sometimes to regard the latter
very much from a conventional and “superior” European angle.
Others, who view the matter from a pronounced “Christian”
point of view, accept the obligation more from a conception
of duty than from any real interest in their guests, and some
even take advantage of the opportunity to expound their own
religious attitudes in an attempt at proselytization. Others,
again, though willing to show friendliness towards a coloured
person, hold pronounced opinions on the sexual implications of
racial intercourse, and restrict or segregate their contacts
accordingly.

All this obviously detracts from the possibilities of mutual
respect as well as sociability. The coloured person soon becomes
alive to the situation, and in the majority of cases resents it very
strongly, so that the relationship does not progress very far. The
broad result of all this is that, relatively isolated from anything
like a reasonable cross-section of English society and opinion, the
coloured person tends in not a few instances to obtain as in-
complete and even as biased an impression of English people
as he accuses them of having of his own. As in the converse
situation of white vis-d-vis coloured, discussed in the last chapter,
the response of the coloured man towards English people as a
whole tends to no small extent to become, in a very similar sense,
a reaction to a stereotype. It is important therefore that this
consideration should be borne well in mind when we are examin-
ing such attitudes.

4. Some West Indian Reactions

As we have said, the nature of the English situation tends to
hit the West Indian particularly hard in regard to social recogni-

THE COLOURED MAN’s REACTION TO THE ENGLISH 253

tion and status. Colour prejudice is seldom expressed on the
surface in his home country, and there are even elaborate social
devices for avoiding the too direct implications of colour differ-
ences which operate in many respects like those which prevail
in England over class differences. Here, for example, an ‘^upper
class” person might be very loath to associate with a working
man, and might take every precaution to avoid being seen
walking or talking in public with one whose speech or dress did
not satisfy the requisite class and social criteria; but he would
certainly not go out of his way to call him ‘‘lower class” to his
face. From the point of view of most West Indians certain terms
in use in England, amongst which the word “Nigger” is the
most obvious, have much the same connotation as the expression
“lower-class person” would have for an Englishman.^ The
following lines, obviously the outcome of some personal experience
in this country, give some idea of the association as well as of
the very acute emotional reaction that is evoked in the mind of a
coloured person:

They call me ‘‘Nigger”,

Those little white urchins,

They laughed and shouted
As I passed along the street.

They flung it at me:

“Nigger! Nigger! Nigger!”

What made me keep my fingers
From choking the words in their throats?

What made my face grow hot.

The blood boil in my veins
And tears spring to my eyes?

What made me go to my room
And sob my heart away
Because white urchins
Called me “Nigger”?

What makes the dark West Indian
Fight at being called a Nigger?

What is there in that word
That should strike like a dagger
To the heart of Coloured men
And make them wince?

^ This comment does not lose sight of the fact the word “Nigger” is universally
abhorrent to all coloured people. The object here is merely to indicate the depth and
extent of the personal reaction evoked by this and analogous expressions in a way
which is typical to a greater or less degree of most coloured people.

254

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

You of the white skinned Race
You who profess such innocence,

I’ll tell you why ’tis sin to tell

Your offspring Coloured folk are queer,

Black men are bogies and inferior far
To any creature with a skin made white.

You who feel that you are “sprung
Of earth’s first blood’’, your eyes
Are blinded now with arrogance.

With ruthlessness you seared
My people’s flesh, and now you still
Would crush their very soul.

Add fierce insult to vilest injury.

We will not be called “Niggers”

Since this was the favourite curse
Of those who drove the Negroes
To their death in days of slavery.

“A good for nothing Nigger,”

“Only one more Nigger gone”

They would repeat as though
He were a chicken or a rat.

That word then meant contempt.

All that was low and base.

And too refined for lower animals.

In later years when singing Negroes
Caused white men to laugh.

And show some interest in their art
They talked of “Nigger Minstrels”,

And patronised the Negro,

And laughing at his songs

They could in nowise see

The thorns that pierced his heart.

“Nigger” was raised then to a Burlesque Show
' And thus from Curse to Clown progressed,

A coloured man was cause for merriment.

And though to-day he soars in every field
Some shrunken souls still say
“Look at the Nigger there”

As though they saw a green bloodhound
Or a pink puppy.

God keep my soul from hating such mean souls,

God keep my soul from hating

Those who preach the Christ

And say with churlish smile

“This place is not for ‘Niggers’.”

God save their souls from this great sin
Of hurting human hearts that live
And think and feel in unison
With all humanity. ^

^ Una Marson, “Nigger” (quoted in The vol. I, i, 1933).

THE COLOURED MAN’s REACTION TO THE ENGLISH 255

The first batch of technicians to arrive in the 1939
housed in a hostel at Liverpool. ^ For a variety of reasons this
was not a success. Some of the reasons which were a preliminary
to a long chain of discord are referred to by the then warden, an
Englishman, in the following words:

“It is on the social side that the experiment has singularly failed. The
volunteers were undoubtedly inspired with a real sense of patriotism when they
came here. They really believed that Britain was in need of their technical
skill, and that they were performing a genuine service by coming here. Their
6,000-mile sea journey was no light undertaking, and they were not unaware
of its hazards. It is not surprising therefore that they should have expected
to meet with a certain sense of obligation in the Mother Country. This they
have conspicuously failed to encounter. It is true that there can be no complaint
that the official welcome afforded to each contingent on its arrival lacked
warmth. It is against their experience in the factories, and especially their
experiences as British citizens attempting to create a social life for themselves
in a new country, that their criticism is directed.

“The basis of their sense of injury is twofold. Firstly, racial discrimination
— ‘colour bar’ — has led most of them into very unfortunate experiences. In
the case of the third contingent, within six hours of arriving in Liverpool,
three of them had been excluded from a popular dance hall, and one of them
refused service in an hotel, expressly on grounds of colour.” *

^ The hostel in question was selected partly from expediency, owing to the hous-
ing shortage in Liverpool due to recent bombing, and was situated in a part of the
town very close to the coloured community. This in itself immediately brought the
technicians into association in the popular mind with the local coloured people.
In respect to these, and other West Indian technicians taken elsewhere, further
difficulties derived from industrial as well as cultural reasons, Jamaican technical
standards are different from English ones, and the lines between the trades arc less
clearly demarcated. For example, in Jamaica, a man can be a good welder and a
good mechanic as well, and this fact led to some misunderstanding over the placing
of the men in England. After a period of training some of the West Indians were due
for a rise in pay: the increase was overlooked, and was not forthcoming until they had
lodged a strong complaint. Most of them joined Trade Unions, but in the case of the
electric welders, difficulties arose over Jamaicans who were unable to prove that they
had served a bona fide apprenticeship. There were complaints from some of the
technicians regarding a colour bar in the factories, and counter-complaints from some
of their employers of undue absenteeism; the latter was put down by the men them-
selves to the difficulty of getting used to the cold winter weather. Difficulties increased
at some of the hostels, notably at one in Liverpool. The men complained, some more
vociferously than others, of inadequate and badly-cooked meals; of the regulations in
force, of the accommodation itself, and repeatedly of the various wardens, both white
and coloured, sent to look after them. How far the whole situation was exacerbated
by external factors is not easy to say.

It is, perhaps, significant that in a hostel at Birkenhead, where white and coloured
lodgers were mixed, there was a relatively peaceful atmosphere. Possibly in the
Liverpool case, apart from other reasons, the effect of a virtual “segregation” of the
West Indians in one house showed itself psychologically in the exaggeration of internal
causes and as a form of “safety valve” for difficulties outside.

(cf. West Indian Workers in Gt, Britain, Arnold R. Watson, Hodder and Stoughton,
1942.) The comment in the last paragraph is by the present writer.

* Alex Watkinson, Time and Time, 1942.

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

S56

5. Various Types of Discrimination and their Repercussions

Difficulties in finding lodgings as well as work are often
recounted by Africans and West Indians, and are substantiated in
general by factual studies, ^ as well as by the experience of most
English persons who at any time have sought to book such
accommodation. ^ An English observer, who has come into close
and continuous contact with foreign and coloured students from
all parts of the world, remarks:

“The African or West Indian student has an even worse time (than the
Indian student), for he is darker skinned than many Indians and suffers more,
probably, from the colour bar. English people in buses or trains will get
up and move to other seats if a coloured person sits next to them; very often
a coloured man searching for lodgings will find the door slammed in his face.
There are hotels, dance halls, and restaurants who will refuse him
admittance.” ^

In the circumstances, it is the British appearance of offering
equality and fair treatment to all races and peoples which both
Africans and West Indians find particularly galling:

“In America they tell you frankly where you are and are not wanted by
means of big signs, and they don’t try to hide their feelings. But in England,
though the people will never say what they feel about us, you come up against
incidents which hurt so much you cannot talk about them.” *

^ See Appendix — “An Aspect of the Colour Bar in Britain.”

2 Compare also / Rise, by Rollo Ahmed, a book which, its author claims, is based
on personal experience.

“It was one thing to search; quite another thing to find. I had not expected
equality in England, but neither was I prepared for a colour-bar. As soon as doors
opened, and the maids or proprietors saw me standing there, excuses were made.
Liverpool was apparently full to overflowing. They were very sorry, there was no
room. ‘Sorry, full up*. And the door banged.

“ ‘No room to-night. Call again in the morning.*

“ ‘Are you alone? Sorry, we don’t take single coloured gentlemen.*

“There was a little notice-board fixed to one door, and peering at it by the light
of a street lamp, I read:

“ ‘No Jews. No coloured people.* ’*

The above quotation recapitulates very reasonably the kind of situation referred
to above. An even more galling situation from the point of view of the coloured
person concerned is when, after booking a room in his English name, the landlady
turns him away on his arrival, after seeing his colour. The evidence on this point is
very extensive, but brevity does not permit of a recital of its ramifications.

^ Mary Trevelyan, From the Ends of the Earth, 1942.

* Miss Una Marson at a British Commonwealth League Conference (1934).

“Miss Una Marson described the case of a coloured girl who came to England
with her parents to be a nurse. The girl applied at 28 hospitals, but they all turned
her down. One secretary (of a hospital) said: ‘While we have no official colour bar
no coloured girl would stand an earthly chance of becoming a nurse with us. . . .We
have no objection to coloured nurses, but people in the East End have very strong
colour prejudices.* Inquiries support the allegation made by Miss Marson.** News
Chronicle, .Quoted in The Keys, vol. 2, no. i, 1934.

THE COLOURED MAN’s REACTION TO THE ENGLISH 257

An African expresses his disillusion in similar terms:

“I thought that on leaving South Africa for England I was at the same time
leaving the infamous colour bar behind and was coming to the paradise of
freedom. Since my arrival here I have been quite disillusioned on this
point. . . .

“The coloured races in South Africa think that the colour bar is a purely
local affair and that England, as the centre of the Empire, is the last place
where it would be tolerated. The treatment of the coloured people in London
almost forces one to believe that colour bar is the policy of the British Empire.” ^

With others, particularly those who have been reared under
strong missionary and Christian influence, it is the conflict
between the ideals they have been taught to look for and to
expect, and the reality of the situation, which affects them most.
An ex-theological student from West Africa puts the case as
follows:

“So far as your correspondent is able to ascertain, the African has become
reconciled to the treatment of landladies and hotel managers. Those people
profess no ideal other than that of money-making, and if their customers
from whom they derive most of their profits object to the presence of a coloured
man they (landladies and hotel managers) have no course open to them other
than that of bolting the door against the unwanted. . . .

“What gives the African a shock from which he seldom recovers is when he
realises that those who boast of idealism in their relationship with him, and
in whom he had trusted, have been treating him in a way contrary to the
lofty sentiments they profess. I refer to the Government and the Church. . .

West Indians and West Africans repeatedly stress the
inconsistency of British policy, and the ambiguity in that respect
of their own position; particularly when it comes to finding
employment. There is, in fact, a saying fairly common among
Negro people that ‘‘in the States, a Negro is the last to be hired
and the first to be fired; in England, he isn’t even hired”.

It is generally known that at present no coloured boy or girl can procure
a job in an office no matter how qualified he or she may be. Indeed, as a
matter of fact, they cannot secure a job in any capacity whatsoever. No
engineering works will employ them and apart from shipping they have no other
outlet. Have you seen any thus employed?

If a coloured medical student should fail for any reason to receive his
usual remittances from home, he cannot, however willing as he may be,
secure any job in Britain which will enable him to secure sufficient money to
keep himself and see himself through. If he were an American coloured
citizen he could do so, but Britain finds some objection to employing a man
of colour even though she plumes herself with the thought that she isn’t so
bad as America in this matter of colour. ®

» Ibid,

* Rev. E. N. Jones in a letter to the Spectator ^ April 1931.

» The Keys, 1935.

258 NEGROES IN BRITAIN

Expressions of benevolence on the part of English people,
references to the legality of the position of the British coloured
subject, and other protestations lead only to further exasperation:

. . , the absence of legal discrimination is no guarantee of equality of
opportunity. When a brilliant medical student seeks to gain post-graduate
experience as a house surgeon in an English hospital but finds that hardly
any hospital in the Kingdom will give him his chance, it is cold comfort to
know that there is no law preventing Negroes from becoming surgeons in
British hospitals. Nor is his humour improved by the apology that no Negro is
entitled to such a chance until the race proves itself fit by producing some
world-famous surgeons. ‘

It was such circumstances as these, apparently, which
prompted the League of Coloured Peoples to take up relief work
among coloured people who had come to England to look for
employment, “after having been deceived into believing that
there was no colour or race prejudice here, and that all British
subjects were made welcome with open arms and given as good
a chance as the natives of this country”. The Association reported
about this time (1939) frequent cases of people in good circum-
stances, sometimes Colonial officials, who on leaving the Colonies
bring with them to England servants or nurses for their children,
with the verbal promise of repatriation after one or two years,
or if they cannot stand the climate. “These girls are often left
on the streets, and their employers disclaim all responsibility for
their repatriation.”^

6. Further Implications of Racial Self-Consciousness

Hardly less irritating to both West African and West Indian
visitors to this country than any overt manifestation of colour
bar or colour prejudice is the “curiosity” of white people as
well as the fairly constant battery of questions, often well intended,
and from the point of view of their posers entirely harmless.®
These have mainly to do with the supposed abundance of wild
animals, the climatic conditions, and the “uncivilized” behaviour
of the “natives” of the Colonies, including cannibalism. Two

^ The Keys, vol. 2.

^ The Keys,

® “The spontaneous reaction of children in the streets, who so frequently call out
‘Look at the nigger* without any real intention of being insulting, and the well-
meaning tactlessness of women of all ages who want to ‘touch a nigger for luck*.**
Watkinson, op, cit.

THE COLOURED MAN’s REACTION TO THE ENGLISH 259

young African students recount their impressions of this type
of curiosity in the following words:

We have come across many in this country to whom the mere mention of
the word “Africa” reflects all sorts of stories which they have heard or read. . . .
It is no exaggeration to say that quite a number of people believe that Africa
is a continent swarming with snakes, lions, leopards, crocodiles and such like.
A friend once informed one of us that his Uncle, who works as a doctor in
Accra, told him that people had to carry guns about in order to defend them-
selves from lions and other wild animals. One day, the story goes on, they were
playing tennis when snakes issued suddenly from the bush, swallowed the balls,
and disappeared. ... We have also heard all sorts of stories about the
“excessive heat” in Africa; it is so hot, one story goes, that only wood can
be used in making bridges, for metal will melt under the blazing sun. There
is also a story of a careless African woman who, returning from market,
dropped her basket. By the time she had finished picking up the other things
she had in the basket some broken eggs by being exposed to the heat had
become cooked! Last year, we met a young missionary going out to West
Africa for the first time. She was very pleased to be going to the only place in
Nigeria where a piano exists for any length of time. The strings apparently melt! ^

West Indians, in particular, are annoyed by being asked if
they speak English.- A Gold Coastian summarizes his reactions
as follows:

It does not take him long to find out he is regarded as a savage even by the
starving unemployed who ask him for alms. Amusing questions are often
put to him as to whether he wore clothes before he came to England; whether
wild animals wandered at large in the streets of his native town. He concludes
that the people of the class to which his landlady belongs are, to say the least,
poorly informed as to the peoples of other Countries, especially of those parts
known as “the Colonies”. ... At the educational establishments he notices
that there is no better information possessed by his fellow students respecting
“natives” in “The Colonies” than is possessed by those less educated; the only
difference is that the better educated people ask questions that are less rude. ^

^ Excerpts from a Cambridge College magazine.

“ Watkinson, op, cit. “Their experience since they came here has led them to
conclude that hardly anybody in Britain knows even where Jamaica is, and they arc
continually infuriated by the obvious surprise that they speak English, which is, of
course, their native tongue.

“I am very fond of reading books of travel. Travel in Africa specially appealed
to me. None of the comforts of civilization! No trains; a spice of danger; snakes —
which I detest; rats — whichil dislike about as much; the strange and reprehensible
habits of the natives; West Africa, the White Man’s Grave! If I went there, I might
even not come back. I might die alone in the jungle, and the Jacksds or something
might devour my mortal remains. . . .

“There are not many books about the Cameroons, but all those I read talked
about the hardships of journeying there, the wretchedness of fever, the hippos and
crocodiles that waited for me every time one crossed a river. . . .

“Alas! the books misled me, as they doubtless misled the friends who said good-bye
to me with an evident admiration of my heroism which was flattering.” F. Clement
C. Egerton, African Majesty y pp. xvi-xvii.

* cf. Kobina Sekyi in the Pfegro Anthology, pp. 774-9. A very interesting
psychological study of a present-day young Gold Coastian who has been educated
in the English manner (see also footnote below).

26o

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

7. Disillusion and Disappointment

Many coloured people feel that the Englishman’s “superiority”
attitude towards them is an intrinsic element in the situation,
and not a few are disposed to generalize about it, sometimes
with a considerable amount of conscious irony:

This much at least must be said of the English — that they are not unduly
aggressive or blatantly rude. They are no doubt a well-mannered nation.
They realize it is not polite to lynch. The English attitude is more dignified-
condescending in its kindness, patronizing in its tolerance. The English arc
prepared to overlook what they regard as this great tragedy of human nature,
and even to extend an occasional hand of welcome, so long as everything is
done with reason and discretion. Beneath a suave exterior there is always
the feeling that men are classified by nature into those who are white and those
who are coloured. These two divisions are to many Englishmen fundamental
in the classification of men. There is also a deep-rooted conviction that of the
two the white races are in every respect superior, and against such a con-
viction, which is almost a faith, the coloured man finds it futile to argue. ^

Nevertheless, the realization of the situation, and their
non-acceptance in English society, comes to some almost as a
surprise. The West Indian sense of disillusionment is character-
istically more bitter than the African:

We, who are taught to love thee, hold thee dear.

Think of thy welfare as our very own,

Die for thee, honour thee, and love thee well.

The British name, the King upon the throne.

With eager hearts we came to our Fatherland
To know; with loyalty, and love and honour grown
Out of distance. With hopes from youth held dear,

To find too soon these hopes for ever flown. . . .

Oh, that she still would give us cause to love.

Sadly we turn from all the pomp and state,

True loyalty dies hard, and sadness leaves.

(We do not let ourselves descend to hate)

We go a disillusioned British host.

Back to the lands from which we came of late.

For ever broken by our welcome here.

And all the bitter insults that we meet. -

The West African, on the other hand, feels disappointment
mainly because the reality of first-hand contact with English
and European civilization has not fulfilled what it promised,

^ D. F. Kanaka in the Spectator, 1934, “The Colour Bar in Britain**. Kanaka was
the first Indian to hold the position of President of the Oxford Union.

* Sylvia Lowe, Disillusionment {** After seeing ^The Trooping of the Colour' *’), vol. I,
no. 2. The K^s, 1933.

THE COLOURED MAN’s REACTION TO THE ENGLISH 26 1

Some, more intuitively, feel resentment as much at themselves
and their countrymen for being misled into a superficial imitation
of European externals as with the English for offering and yet
denying these things to them. The final readjustment is sometimes,
but not always, a philosophical one, and the following piece of
autobiography by a semi-‘ ‘anglicized’’ Fanti man shows how
considerations of pride also weigh in the matter:

Nevertheless, there are certain things against which Kwesi’s soul rebels.
He is convinced more or less that the only way of escaping the domination of
aliens is by acquiring the refined tastes of the dominating aliens; yet he docs
not feel satisfied about these same tastes. In the first place he soon begins to
distinguish the various distinct grades of society in England. ... In the
second place, the Fanti ideal of womanhood which somehow has taken root
in his soul makes it impossible for him to replace it with the English ideal of
womanhood. Kwesi finds that in spite of the attractiveness of their get-up and
other allurements, while girls are to him no more than part of the white man’s
land. Moreover, he feels that at the back of every white girl’s mind is the
idea that she is conferring a favour on any black man with whom she associates.
Kwesi possesses that unique African pride which is seldom appreciated by
non-Africans, often miscalled insolence by white men; so he has little to do
with white girls, unless and in so far as they treat him as a woman treats a man,
and not as a white woman thinks she should treat a black man. . . . ^

8 . Some Examples of “Hypersensitivity”

The reactions of other coloured people to English life and
behaviour are manifold and extremely variable, and depend
largely on the psychology and social background of the person
concerned. With some it is the restriction on sociability which
affects them most. Others who are more sensitive give up speedily
and entirely any attempt to fraternize with or to meet white
people. Often, imagining ostracism and coldness where neither
was intended, they draw back into a hard shell of cynicism and
racial antagonism. An Indian himself puts the latter point rather
lucidly:

The Colour Bar from without, which is the result of the attitude of the white
races, leads to a Colour Bar from within which b of his own creation. He
instinctively holds back from certain things. He is afraid of being humiliated.
He is so terribly sensitive, and always anxious to preserve his self-respect which
even colour cannot bar. “

^ Sekyi, op, cit.

‘ Kanaka, op. cit.

10

262

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

A similar view is expressed by an English observer;

The coloured man or girl had their own particular fear of the daily insults
and slights from white people, or of walking into some hotel or restaurant
and being turned out again. Underneath their good manners and charm many
of these Africans, West Indians and Indian students had been deeply hurt.
Later, I was to see the same look in the eyes and hear the same chance remark
from the refugees from Nazi oppression.^

In a few cases, withdrawal closely approaches a serious
condition. The individual shuns not only all social gatherings
and convivial occasions, but tries, more or less successfully, to
keep himself away from popular gaze, by shunning as far as
practicable visits to shops, cinemas, and any other form of public
gathering. The effect can produce a specific as well as a general
effect on his psychological state. He may develop an almost
morbid fear of coming into anything like close proximity with a
white person, particularly a woman. ^ He will avoid travelling
alone in a railway carriage, lest a woman enter, and will refuse
under any circumstances to walk in the street with a white
member of the opposite sex. To some extent this attitude derives,
so far as the more sensitive coloured person is concerned, from
the sexual concomitant of race relations in this country to which
he is inordinately alive. ^

The psychological outcome of such circumstances may be
not dissimilar from the condition clinically classifiable as
neurasthenia. Just as in a recognized state of neurosis the subject
suffers from a conglomeration of groundless fears regarding
himself and his health, and gradually loses all self-confidence and
initiative, the sufferer in cases of racial conflict may, as a result of
an intensive reaction to the colour situation, develop a similar
complex, showing itself in various forms of minor physical
ailment. ^

^ Trevelyan, op. cit,

* Compare this condition with the analogous symptoms exhibited in the converse
situation by a white person, as described on page 229.

® “In England I know that the Negro has a very definite social appeal, and a very
great charm for many white women. In fact, this is so much the case, that I have often
been ashamed of the way women of all classes, but notably in the smarter social sets
of London, have almost offered themselves to Negroes whom I know personally.
It appears that white women are foolish enough to consider such a condescension
should be an honour, just because they happen to be white. This is a great mistake,
at least in London, where the few Negroes who mix in the social life are attractive
and popular enough to be able to pick and choose should they wish to do so.** Doris
Garland Anderson, Nigger Lover y p. 195.

study of contemporary North American sociological literature bears out the
psychological effects of racial conflict on individual personality to a striking extent.

THE COLOURED MAN’s REACTION TO THE ENGLISH 263

9. The Political “Safety-Valve”

The most obvious and perhaps most satisfactory outlet
for emotion in these and similar cases is political activity. Some-
times it is coupled with an intense suspicion of official intentions.
The English government official, who comes in contact only with
the overt manifestations of such resentment, is prone to regard the
African’s or the West Indian’s violent reaction to colour pre-
judice merely as an excuse for, or possibly a rationalization of,
nationalist or political frustration. This is far from being the
complete explanation of the case. Indeed, many coloured people,
quite apart from racial or national consciousness, are not fully
alive to the political implications of the situation until some
particular incident or set of circumstances has aroused their
awareness in this respect. In a fair number of cases it is the purely
personal set-back, the sudden and unexpected shock to “amour-
propre”, which is the main, if not the sole, causal agent in this
matter:

Imagine the feelings of a young African, never before away from home,
but educated in an English mission school. He has been baptized and con-
firmed and taught that England is a great Christian country. ... Is it any
wonder that he looks puzzled and bewildered, like a child that has been
smacked by a grown-up without being aware of what he has done wrong?
At first he feels dimly that the thing is unfair, and then, as he learns the kind
of treatment he has to expect, he becomes deeply, irretrievably hurt. Very
often he becomes bitter to the depths of his soul. When he goes home
again, some years older and more hardened to life, will he describe in glowing
colours a great free, democratic Mother Country to which he is proud to
belong? ^

Just occasionally the conflict experience is striking enough
to be quoted in full. The African ordinand mentioned on page
257, relates one such incident as follows:

Some years ago your correspondent studied at Oxford for the ministry of
the Church. After completing his studies the Principal of his Hall wrote to the
Bishop of . . . asking his lordship whether he would be willing to ordain
him should he succeed in securing a curacy in his lordship’s diocese. His
lordship replied that on no account would he lay his hands on a black man’s
head! Another bishop preached at the University church and told his audience
that there were about thirty parishes in his diocese which were beipg run
single-handed; if any student was contemplating taking Orders, he should
think of his diocese. After the service the writer approached his lordship and
told him that he would like to work in one of those parishes in order to gain

^ Trevelyan, op, cit.

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

264

some knowledge of parochial work before returning home. The bishop took
his name and address. Within a fortnight he received a letter stating that owing
to the colour of his race, his lordship could not ordain him! In fairness to the
Church, your correspondent must say that after two years he at last found a
bishop who was Christian enough to ordain him. However, conditions were
made that the ordination would hold good only “for the Colonies”. So much
for “The Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man”. *

But more often it is the small and seemingly unimportant
incident, the denial of a landlady that she has a room to let
after it had been advertised by a notice in her window; a chance
snub, even a chance remark, which is the cause of the trouble,
rather than some major act of racial intolerance, such as a
lynching in the Southern States, or an anti-coloured Act in South
Africa. Why the “pin-prick” should be felt most keenly, it is
perhaps not so difficult to understand. In the first place, it
occurs in a country which, unlike the United States of America
or South Africa, does not own any distinction of race or creed,
but, on the contrary, as Mother Country of a huge “coloured”
empire, purports to offer equality to all. In the second place,
and largely as a result of these circumstances, the West African
or West Indian feels such slights when they occur not as some-
thing objective, impersonal, and even abstract, over which
neither he nor the white person concerned has any control,
but rather as a deliberate and personal piece of discrimination
on the latter’s part. ^

^ Jones, op, cit.

^ A personal affront seems to have been largely responsible for another young
African’s rather strong reaction, which he records in the following piece of auto-
biography:

“In my boyhood days ... I had always had visions of coming to the ‘Mother
Country’ for professional training. I always looked forward to my undergraduate
days in London, so it was perhaps not unnatural that among my pen-friends scattered
all over the world I specially welcomed one in London.

“My friend happened to be a shorthand typist two years my junior, and she had
her home in Acton. We had been in correspondence for two and a half years before
I left my native Africa in the confident hope that on arriving in London I wouldn’t
be a perfect stranger to all the eight million inhabitants, for I knew one at least by
correspondence. Within a few months after my arrival, however, I soon found out
that Margaret was as much a stranger as any fraiilein in the Rhineland — a fact
borne out by the fact that we have not met. . . . During my first two months,
Margaret and I were still in correspondence, for soon after my arrival I had to write
to her in reply to a letter of hers forwarded to me. I soon stopped writing, having come
to the conclusion that the only social contact we could have must of necessity be on the
basis of pen-friendship. . . .” (The writer goes on to describe how he eventually
became friendly with a German boy and how the friendship was renewed when the
latter returned from Canada after a period of internment. He concludes) “We are
still very friendly. In fact ‘X’ is the only ‘Aryan’ among my friends. There are
undoubtedly several deductions to be made from these my two earliest impressions;
but as no intellectual feat is involved in making such deductions I shall refrain.

THE COLOURED MAN’s REACTION TO THE ENGLISH 265

The dynamic forms which such more violent reactions take
vary also according to the African or West Indian outlook. The
Africans translate their emotion into demands for the speedy
elevation of the political status of their country; in part as fulfil-
ment of their patriotic aspirations; in part, on the reasoned
assumption that equal political status abroad will enhance their
own individual social status in this country.

Both West Africans and West Indians usually feel very strongly
that British professions of liberalism should be expressed in
prompt and positive action. There is a great deal of impatience
with English attitudes which deplore colour prejudice and colour
bar practices but which envisage no alteration, either by racial
education or in other ways, to the existing situation.

10. Inter-Racial Co-operation an Individual Affair

Strenuous efforts are made in some respects for the con-
venience and comfort of coloured visitors, and strict equality
of treatment in the economic as in the social sense is not
infrequently accorded. Nor do these things necessarily go
unappreciated by the coloured individuals concerned. Coloured
persons who have been more fortunate in their English contacts
are as a rule correspondingly more disposed to analysis both
of them and of their fellows, and often strike a balance which
on the whole is favourable towards their “hosts”. A not in-
frequent comment in this respect is that there are some well-
bred English people who, if they feel prejudice, at least do not
show it, ^ and this in its context is a far greater admission than
would appear.

A lighter-skinned university student who had spent several
years in Britain and travelled fairly extensively, remarked on the
absence of prejudice encountered in rural Wales, and in a Welsh

“In conclusion, however, I should like to re-emphasize that they are early, strong
and indelible, and as such they will always live with me, to be passed on to posterity.*'
(Documentary material.)

^ Probably the main criterion and qualification from the coloured point of view
is a complete absence of “superiority** in attitude or air on the part of the English
person concerned. An African who was asked to provide an English person with a
testimonial in respect to employment the latter was seeking in West Africa wrote:
“X is almost the only Englishman I have ever met who can talk to an African without
making him feel inferior**.

266

NEOROES IN BRITAIN

town, where, as he puts it, he was no more a stranger than the
“foreigners” from Birmingham, i.e. “the English holiday crowd”.
Though highly conscious of prejudice in many instances he
found the Y.M.C.A. atmosphere on the whole a friendly one,
and travelling about the country on his motor-cycle he was not, so
far as he could gather, refused lodgings on account of his colour.
He is inclined to conclude that familiarity “or rather more
politely, better acquaintance” did alter the attitudes of those he
had to deal with.^

^ From documentary material. The following more detailed excerpts from this
piece of autobiography provide a fairly adequate conception of the reactions of
coloured opinion on this subject. It will be noted, incidentally, that this correspondent
is lighter-skinned, and there is probably no doubt that this fact has some bearing
on the relatively favourable reception reported.

Documentary MateriaL — “The variety of reactions to colour alone in the parts of
the British Isles with which I am acquainted is so striking as to seem to defy any formula.
A few tentative generalisations, however, are suggested by my experience: that
the Welsh, Irish, Scotch and English display colour-prejudice in an ascending order
of degree; that British class-stratification goes a considerable way to explain prejudice;
that the larger communities — cities — tend to be foci of prejudice; that, ceteris paribus,
the south of England is more hostile than the north; that a realisation of common
interests, political or sporting, for example, tends to mitigate prejudice very greatly;
that British prejudice against strangers in general is merely transformed in degree
when colour is the issue; that colour prejudice is to be largely attributed to the peculiar
caricature of the coloured man which the average Britisher has conjured up from his
only source of information, the Yellow Press, the flicks, and the sensation-mongering
travel books, that basically, status varies with degree of colour and ostensible spending
power, not with personal qualities.

“A brief r^sum6 of certain features of my stay in Britain may serve to show the
grounds for these conclusions; I will refer to my various places of residence, my
University life, my special interests and the social relationships ensuing from them. My
first year I spent in London. . . . One could not speak of any marked colour preju-
dice in the Y.M.C.A.; the membership was very cosmopolitan, the residents were
either students or office workers, in either case away from home, without fixed associa-
tions and ready to mix, at i8 I was quite adaptable. But even here I noticed that most
English fellows I knew really well were North of England, that it was much easier
to maintain contact with other West Indians and Indians, that the Irish seemed
rather congenial, that there was genuinely something called ‘English reserve* against
which the Continentals kicked as much as I did. My most regular European associates,
three or four Scotch and English members of our chess team who played basket-ball
as well (I played both), were Scandinavians, who were even more critical of the English
than I was. On the whole, the Y.M.C.A. atmosphere was a friendly one. There was
colour prejudice about; fellows with whom I got on quite well couldn’t stand the
sight of an Indian, so to speak, but I never came up against it there.

“But a London college gave me my first real dose of it. From the very start I
found myself noting deliberate little acts of what I now term ‘aggression*, pointed
avoidances, ignoring of casual salutations, looks, semi-hostile remarks. I found the
cross-country crowd so unpleasant that I left them to join the Y.M.C.A. Harriers.
Even in the College Chess Club, which was rather unfriendly (the Chess Captain was
a German Jew) I found that I was placed lower down than my playing strength
suggested, so much so that I had not a single loss for the whole season. No matter
in what direction I turned, U nion Dances, History Society teas, I found in general
the same subtle manifestation of social antagonism.

. . F . . . Hous e I found obsessed with an adulation for Indians, rather friendly
towards Chinese, but graded Negro traits as being more or less at the bottom of the

THE COLOURED MAN’s REACTION TO THE ENOUSH 267

By some coloured individuals antipathy is never displayed,
and probably is not felt. Instances of this rather rare phenomenon
have already been quoted in reference to the Loudoun Square
community. Again, of course, the whole situation is bound up
with individual psychology and social background and experience,
and frequently in such cases the strong Christian convictions of the
person concerned are largely responsible. Other coloured
individuals, too, make a very conscious and deliberate distinction
in the case of individual English people whom they like and

scale, even if for constitutional purposes they had to be accepted within the pale.
The majority of the Club members were English, but this social stratification seemed
to be accepted by all and sundry.

“About X House and my West Indian circle of acquaintances and friends only
two remarks seem pertinent. I found most of them suffering from the pressure of
British colour-prejudice much more acutely than I was. I myself spent most of my
time away from coloured people during this my stay in London and was not subject
to that in-breeding of conviction on colour questions which marks an X House
habitu6.

“This part of my stay in London was comparatively pleasant, and the jolts I
suffered all took place within a narrow and sheltered sphere. I hardly ever went
anywhere without several other people, usually Europeans of one country or another,
and never felt terribly out of place. Apart from the clubs and colleges named above,
my activities were confined to playing chess . . . (and) cross-country running with
the Y.M.C.A. Harriers, and I found that the people I came up against in various
matters were invariably decent and open.

“I lived for six months after this in a house in Hampstead. There were fourteen
of us living here with two English graduates — husband and wife. All of us were
‘foreigners* but one. We lived a sort of community life, which seemed quite good for a
while. Most of my old contacts remained, but travelling to and from Hampstead made
me much more observant of the attitudes of casual observers, and I received an
impression of an almost unvarying aversion, of a not very deep character, the mani-
festation of which varied from avoidance of proximity in buses to sotto voce remarks.

“It is clear that my impressions during this time were confined within narrow
limits. I knew as many people as I wanted to know, and I had a secure ‘base of
operations*, I was aware of aversion and prejudice, and flashed out into a bit of a
temper over ‘incidents* now and then, but on the whole took little notice. I was only
once out of London for any length of time, for ten days at Hastings, where I found a
much more friendly and less impersonal atmosphere than I had in London.

“My . . . year in a Welsh town was in general a cheerful one. To the average
denizens of the place I was no more of a stranger than the ‘foreigners’ from Birming-
ham, i.e. the English summer holiday crowd. I can hardly say that at any time during
my stay in Wales did I notice anything that I could construe as colour-prejudice.
Not that there was an absence of colour-awareness. I never went further south than
Abergavenny and Grickhowell, and never more than thirty miles north of
Aberystwyth, but I was around a good deal on my motor-cycle and I can only say
that the change from London shocked me. Only among English students evacuated
was I ever made to feel that I was an object of prejudice on account of my colour.
I could give some interesting detailed comparisons and labour the point a good deal
more, but it seems hardly necessary to do so. Even the attitude of children visibly
changed as one motor-cycled from London. . . . Along A40 up to Gloucester one
could feel the tense atmosphere in town and village as one passed through; as one
got into Wales fingers were no longer pointed contemptuously and rude noises were
no longer heard. The contrast was sharp, supercilious contempt as against in-
quisitive friendliness.

“Travelling distances with a motor cycle meant that I put up at the strangest

268

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

respect, and in describing such persons to a fellow member of the
race will often refer to them as “all right”, or as “one of us”, or
even semi-facetiously as an “honorary African”. The significance
of these expressions can be appreciated in terms of their context. ^
Nor should it be inferred from what has been said that coloured
people in this country are oblivious to the efforts made and the
hardships sometimes incurred by individual English people on
their behalf in terms of advice, hospitality and active participation
in matters of inter-racial controversy. Their responses are often
whole-hearted and sincere, but the fact that, generally speaking,
they are not racial attitudes in the sense of being displayed towards
a group of people, prohibits their being classified as such.

II. Summary and Conclusions

The nature of the situation in England is such that individual
coloured people, generally speaking, do not have access to
anything like a representative cross-section of English people
and English opinion. The unpleasant experiences of individuals
inevitably tend to aggravate this situation, and to make their
victims less willing to seek other white contacts, which possibly
would modify their hardening views about English people in
general. Emotional factors usually play a large part in this.
Discrimination and aloofness are often suspected where they were

places for the night sometimes. It also meant an interlude in hospital, where I re-
cuperated for a week from shock and got an interesting insight into reactions. In the
few big hotels where I did put up, I spent my time in splendid isolation. In one
place where there was a small common room in an ‘exclusive* hotel, my presence
was tacitly overlooked by a rather charming group of people who spent their time
trying to find out whether any of the others knew of any of their friends. On the whole,
it did not seem as if I was ever refused lodgings for the night for reason of colour,
though I would not be sure. In hospital the nurses were very friendly; I had to spend
a Christmas there, so I was well looked after. Some of the superior townsfolk came
in to see the poor people who were in bed and a few risked their reputations in address-
ing a few words to me in the style of a pukka sahib and its feminine, whatever that
may be, though the rest carefully overlooked my existence. Even the ‘politesse* of the
nurses, that robot-like charm the profession exudes, seemed a trifle cynical in the light
of this, and I thenceforth refused to relax from an iron politeness.’*

^It has to be stressed that, psychologically speaking, members of the opposing
sides are sharply demarcated by their attitudes and behaviour, and there can be no
division of loyalty any more than in actual warfare. It is perhaps significant that
conventional terms such as “pro- African** are never used, presumably because they
do not properly describe the whole-hearted identification indicated by the above
expressions, which, incidentally, provide a striking illustration of the sociological
significance and mechanism of W. G. Sumner’s “In-Group” and “Wc-Sentimcnt”
conceptions {The Folkways),

THE COLOURED MAN’S REACTION TO THE MIGUSH 269

never intended, and not infrequently the coloured person
concerned develops a racial prejudice against white people
which is even more violent than anything met with on the other
side. Group solidarity^ is quite generally increased among
coloured people in this country, whatever their origin, through
a feeling of mutual sympathy which tends, though only partially,
to transcend other loyalties of class, country, and even tribe.
For similar reasons, the “colour question” becomes a subject of
considerable intrinsic and intellectual interest which even many
persons with no previous or pronounced antipathy towards
white people come eventually to share.

Generally, it may be said that experience of life in England
acts as a fairly powerful catalyst on the ordinary coloured “immi-
grant”, particularly so far as his attitude towards English people
and his more abstract relationship with them as a member of
the British Empire are concerned. Previously held ideas are
either hastily and considerably accentuated, or entirely
abandoned. Those who arrive with orthodox Christian views
and feelings of respect for English culture tend greatly to modify
them, and in some cases to become definitely hostile. In a
much smaller number of cases, perhaps, the reverse is the case.
For those who were already race- or colour-conscious, the effect
is usually to confirm and consolidate whatever opinion was
previously held, and to enhance the awareness of those concerned
in terms of scepticism as much as of animosity. If relatively
few coloured people develop violently anti-British attitudes in
Britain, perhaps even fewer are likely to leave it with any of
the sympathetic views with which they arrived. ^ Most, perhaps,
return with a greater respect for individual English people rather
than for English institutions.

The coloured person who remains or resides in this country
has a longer experience of English life and social interactions, and
consequently both a greater spur and, in some cases, a greater
opportunity for making psychological adjustment and social

^ Group solidarity shows itself in a variety of ways, and often in a negative sense,
as for example, condemnation of a coloured person courting or marrying a white one;
or of a defaulter on racial loyalty. In the main, its implications, as would be expected,
are defensive, and unity is most strongly pronounced when it is a case of warding off
an attack rather than making an assault.

® The possibility of some coloured persons arriving in this country with strong
anti-white or even anti-British views cannot, of course, be omitted from consideration,
but its significance as well as its extent is difficult to assess.

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

270

accommodation. His reactions, in contacts with white people,
are less spontaneous and more guarded than those of the temporary
visitor. He comes, sometimes, to a rare understanding of the more
subtle implications of English institutions. His attitude, in
consequence, tends to be more tolerant, and even philosophical
in its acceptance of external and unavoidable circumstances,
and hence achieves a balance in which a sense of cynicism proves
the compensating and decisive weight.

APPENDIX I

AN ASPECT OF THE COLOUR BAR IN ENGLISH

SOCIETY

I. The Data and their Analysis

The data on which this appendix is based were obtained from
a register kept by a well-known association in this country which
acts as a liaison between persons, mainly of the student class, who
are seeking lodgings, and their would-be “hosts” and “hostesses”,
i.e. individual landladies, private individuals and families in
the habit of taking paying guests, and guest houses and boarding
houses. The particulars contained in this register were originally
elicited from the persons concerned (the would-be “hosts” and
“hostesses”) either by the use of a questionnaire, or by personal
inquiry. They include names, addresses, and the general terms
on which accommodation is offered, and include information on
such questions as nationality preferences, and willingness to
accept coloured students. The register also contains information
from which an approximate estimate of the social status of the
families concerned can be made, and it has been checked periodic-
ally and brought up to date over the period of the last six years.
In all, 701 separate cases were examined; of these some 44 per
cent, had been checked in 1939 or later, and of the rest some
25 per cent, were obtained during 1938.

On the basis of these particulars the persons or cases were
divided into three broad categories: (i) private families prepared
to take paying guests; (2) guest houses and boarding houses;
(3) landladies. In percentage terms the proportions worked out
as: Private families 82.5; Guest houses, etc. 6.2; and Landladies
11.3. The sample was then classified geographically, firstly
into addresses within the London Postal area (46 per cent.), and
those outside it (mostly in the southern half of England) 53 per
cent. These were then sub-divided as follows: London: Bloomsbury,
or West Central; Highgate, Muswell Hill, Golders Green,
Camden Town and Hendon, or North-West; Hampstead;
Blackheath, Sydenham, Norwood, etc., or South-East; East

971

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

272

Sheen, Kew, Surbiton, or South-West; and Chelsea, Victoria,
Bayswater, etc. or West. Outside London — Kent; Sussex; Oxford
and Cambridge; Herts, Essex, Surrey and Middlesex; and the
remaining southern counties of England, mainly in the south-west
(with which were included some half-dozen Scottish addresses).

The replies recorded in answer to the queries “Nationality
Preferred”, and “Will you accept Coloured students?” were then
examined and analysed into the following main categories:
(a) any form of aversion to taking Coloured persons from the
mere negative “No” to a fully declared prejudice; (b) the nature
and extent of the aversion, and (c) actual preferences in terms of
nationalities. The results of this analysis may be summarized
as follows; Out of the 701 cases examined, 40.2 per cent, indicated
aversion in some form to taking either Coloured students or
Coloured people. The nature and extent of this aversion varied
considerably, from replies which stated “Europeans only”, or
“Coloured might perhaps be taken” to “Any, but black” or
“JVb Niggers”. These replies, or attitudes, as they might be
called, were graded in terms of their apparent intensity, and are
summarized in Table i. It will be noted that some 78 per cent,
of them denote simply “No Coloured”.

A further analysis of “aversion” according to the categories
of person expressing them, and their geographical distribution,
will be found in tables 2 and 3. It will be noted that the London
figures show an “aversion” percentage of 44.2, which may be
compared with the extra-London figure of 37.3 per cent.; and that
some 44 per cent, of the private families (the percentages of
32.4 for landladies, and 56.4 for Guest houses being based on an
insufficient number of cases cannot be regarded as statistically
significant) show “aversion”. It will also be noted, that when the
socio-occupational categories are divided up again in terms of
London and extra-London the respective percentages are con-
sistent with the general finding. As a final analysis, “aversions”
were recorded according to (a) high educational standing, i.e.
persons possessing academic or professional qualifications such
as university, legal or medical degrees, and (b) ministers of
religion or their wives. The respective percentages of “aversion”
worked out at 41.3 and 47.6. In the latter cases, however, the
sample -was far too small to yield statistically significant results.

Before considering the sociological implications of these data

APPENDIX I

273

the following additional particulars should also be noted. Out
of a total of 701 cases apparently only one dozen expressed their
specific preference or willingness to take Coloured persons. In
go cases, i.e. some 13 per cent, of the whole sample, the persons
concerned were apparently willing to accept guests without
reservation as to race or nationality. A further 12.8 per cent, of
the whole intimated a specific preference for Europeans. In
100 cases (i.e. 14.3 per cent, of the whole), the space opposite
the two queries indicated above was left entirely blank or had a
dash against it. The inference to be drawn from this is pre-
sumably either that the persons concerned had omitted to
consider the questions, or were unwilling to commit themselves
on them. Of the remaining 20 per cent., the replies comprised
mainly preferences for specific European nationalities, and these
are summarized in Table 4 (see also footnote to the Table).
Finally, a few miscellaneous replies and attitudes are worthy of
notice: “No Nazi Germans” (2); “no Germans” or “no French”
(3); “no Jews” (4); “might take a highly recommended Turk”;
and “no one with Nazi principles: no Coloured” (i).

2. Discussion

One or two methodological considerations must first be
noted. One of these relates to the manner in which the register
itself has been compiled. In 78 per cent, of the cases which
indicate some form of aversion to taking in coloured persons the
remark is simply “no Coloured”. It is not known whether the
replies upon which this annotation is based were equally laconic,
or if they offered further explanations which would make
differentiation possible in terms of the wide assortment of attitudes
apparent in the other 22 per cent.

A question of even greater importance relates to the exact
interpretation which has been put on the term “Coloured” itself
by the persons compiling the register, and more particularly by
the people who actually answered the questionnaire. For the
average English person it is elastic enough to cover almost any
person of non-European descent, and as such would bring in both
the lightest-skinned Chinese and the darkest Negro from the

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

274

Guinea coast, and possibly even the southern European. Not
improbably, however, so far as the present material is concerned,
actual proximity to and familiarity with a specific race or
nationality were the main determinants in the choice and use of
the term. For example, in London, where representatives of most
of the coloured races are frequently to be seen, the expression
would not doubt convey a more comprehensive meaning to
the average individual than it would in an inland town, and
still more so than to a person in a country district, where such
contacts, both in number and diversity, are far more limited.
This last point has a further bearing which, it is suggested, might
explain the apparent discrepancy between the “attitudes” of
the London and the non-London samples, the inference being
that the lesser degree of “aversion” displayed by the latter is an
index of their comparative remoteness from the problem. In
short, then, in the absence of specific declaration, it is impossible
to do more than surmise whether a negative answer indicates
general or special antipathy for one reason or another against
accommodating members of any particular race.^

Perhaps the most significant consideration, however, arises
from the fact that while some 1 3 per cent, indicated their willing-
ness to “take any”, only some 1.5 per cent, of the total answered
the actual question “will you accept Coloured students” in the
affirmative. In a further some 14 per cent, of the cases, this
question, either by accident or design, is left unanswered, and
while the remaining some 31 per cent, indicate their preferences

^ A further methodological point is worth brief consideration. The questionnaire
method has often been impugned for its inability to distinguish between “symbolic”
and “non-symbolic” behaviour (cf. Lapiere and Farnsworth, Social Psychology^ pp.
77-97), e.g, for asking the subject to react to an imagined situation rather than to a
“real” one. It may be claimed, however, that the indirect method of the inquiry
here in question has advantages which go far to counteract any such tendency. In
other words, under the conditions ruling, the question “Are you willing to accept
Coloured students?” presented the “subjects” with a situation with which they had
every expectation of having to deal “realistically” and not academically. The con-
trast between this and the purely symbolic type of situation is made clear by the above
authors in the following passage {op. cit, p. 90) :

“Apparently the chief item of news value the press of the country obtained from
this book (Thorndike’s Adult Interests) was the fact that Thorndike had asked his
subjects the amount of money which could successfully bribe them to eat a stated
quantity of human flesh. Both the pressmen and the subjects, at least certain of them,
perceived the lack of relationship between the symbolic and the non-symbolic aspects
of the problem. When a subject is presented with human flesh and then asked his
price, the situation is likely to prove quite different from what happens when he is
presented with printed stimuli and is expected to answer orally and not gastronomic-
ally.”

APPENDIX I

275

in regard to nationalities, they do not state their “attitude” in
respect to coloured persons. When, therefore, all these points
are taken into consideration, it appears that so far as a more
exact compulation of the situation is concerned, the 40 per cent,
“aversion” must be a considerable under-estimate of it. It
affords merely a minimal indication of a reaction whose maximal
content might be assumed on the basis of the facts to cover as
many as six out of every ten persons or families covered in this
survey.

3. Some Sociological Considerations

In proceeding to the sociological consideration of these
results it is as well to issue a caveat which applies to all material
of this kind. So far we have been dealing with objective facts,
viz. so many persons have declared their objection against
accommodating coloured people in their houses and homes. The
question what inferences we are entitled to make from these facts
or declarations is another matter. We may no doubt infer, for
example, in the light of the supplementary information available,
e.g. “NOT Coloured”, “No Niggers”, etc., that the reasons
underlying such objections denote certain more or less widely
held prejudices against coloured people. We may be equally
justified in deciding on general a priori grounds that the reason
for such objections is an aversion on the part of the individual
parties concerned to the type of social and physical contact with
a coloured person that his or her admission into the domestic
circle would entail. ^ Or, as a variant on the former assumption,
we may infer with less justification that such prejudices have an
economic rather than a personal character, i.e. that as strangers
to this country some doubt may be felt regarding the ability of
coloured persons to pay. Of the three assumptions, the two former
appear in the light of more general knowledge of the subject
to be partly, if not wholly true; and so, with the above proviso,
we may now go on to consider more precisely the social significance
of the data themselves.

As a random sample of persons and families in London
and the southern counties who are prepared to accommodate

' Compare the attitudes on this point described on pp. 235.

27fc> NEGROES IN BRITAIN

paying guests, the total of some 560 cases provided here may
be regarded as statistically adequate. On general grounds,
as well as from information provided in the register, it may be
assumed that this type of family belongs to the “middle-class”
section of our society, and this term is usually taken to mean that
the persons concerned follow a clerical, managerial or pro-
fessional form of occupation rather than a manual or artisan one,
and that their incomes on the whole are fairly adequate to their
needs. The motives which prompt such people to accept paying
guests are in the main economic, social, educational, and even
altruistic in varying degrees. The paying guest, as the phrase
suggests, is one who expects, and even is expected to share to a
lesser or greater degree the general social life of the family with
which he resides. The extent of this intercourse varies, but, again
using general terms, it means that the guest is accepted as a social
equal both by the family itself and by the friends and acquaint-
ances who are members of the familial social circle. The socio-
logical implications of the matter are therefore fairly plain,
although the extent to which they apply is of course somewhat
variable. In many, if not in most, middle-class families in English
society the upholding of social status is a very important considera-
tion. One of the ways in which status can very easily be jeopard-
ized is by inability to keep the social and the economic life quite
apart. Obviously, a paying guest comes in the first place under the
latter category, and hence to accept and even invite a person
into one’s house on a commercial basis is a somewhat risky
procedure in terms of the social pattern, and one which can
be accomplished successfully only by very careful attention
to the regulations of that pattern. These suggest that the most
effective way of keeping commercial considerations out of sight
is to act as if they did not exist; hence the necessity of the guest
being looked upon as far as possible as a “friend” of the family.
Certain fairly well demarcated conditions must be fulfilled in this
respect, for in order to find acceptance in any specific social
group it is necessary for the person concerned to conform to the
group’s ideas on social status, appearance and mannerisms.
In short, so far as the paying guest is concerned, it is all
the more necessary that the unorthodox should be avoided,
and in this respect the coloured person is undoubtedly un-
orthodox.

APPENDIX I

277

In the light of this consideration it seems almost tautologous
to suggest that, granting the general assumptions made, the
significance of the data themselves is more extensive than the
immediate facts imply. The 560 odd cases examined represent
a certain special section of the “middle class” which happens to
be engaged in a quasi-commercial occupation. If our assumptions
so far, and more particularly in the last paragraph, are correct,
there is every reason for regarding the attitudes of the sample not
in isolation, but as an index of the general attitudes in this respect
of the class to which it belongs. Whether or not these individuals
personally subscribe to such attitudes is for the moment immaterial
to the general issue.

Consideration of the results shown in the other two categories,
i.e. Landladies and Guest houses, offers further support for this
claim, allowing, of course, for the possibilities of a far wider
margin of error in the sampling of these groups. The “aversion”
percentages were respectively: Guest houses some 56 per cent.;
Landladies some 32 per cent. Here again, sociological analysis
affords the best clue to the situation. In both cases the motive
in seeking guests is fundamentally a commercial one, and from
the point of view of both guest-house and boarding-house pro-
prietor the factors which determine their attitudes are likely to
be in accordance with economic interests. Speaking generally,
a guest house or boarding house occupies a position socially
intermediate between the large hotel and the private home. To
a varying degree its function is to offer some sort of substitute
for the latter. Guests take their meals more or less commensally
and social proximity is often enhanced by the provision of a
drawing-room or some form of common room in which they can
mingle still further. The very fact that such public rooms are
considerably smaller than the dining rooms and lounges in the
larger type of hotel proper means that actual physical and social
proximity between the guests is inevitably increased. From the
point of view of the average proprietor of such an establishment
the existence of a “firiendly atmosphere” is highly important:
indeed, to a considerable extent the welfare of his business is
bound up with the degree to which his house is able to offer this
substitute for the intimacy of home life. Just as obviously, the
introduction of a person or of persons (for example, coloured
people) whose presence is in any way unacceptable to the

278 NEGROES IN BRITAIN

majority of his existing guests may well bring about his ruin. ^

In contrast to this, the situation in terms of the lodging
house or Landlady category is somewhat different. Here,
personal contacts between the lodgers are reduced to a minimum.
In most cases the individual lodgers occupy single rooms or
sets of rooms where they take their meals and remain during
the time they are in the house. There is no public room wherein
guests can mingle, and there is no social obligation upon individual
guests other than what might be enjoined by a brief meeting on
the stairs or in the hall. In other words, however objectionable
the individuality and presence of a specific lodger in the house,
the possibilities of his constituting a problem for the other lodgers,
and hence to the proprietor, are considerably fewer. In addition,
there are differences of a purely economic and business nature
between the running of a guest house and a lodging house which
mitigate still further the dependence of the proprietor of the
latter upon the good will of his tenants. In the light, therefore,
of this further example it seems once again that the data in
question indicate not so much the personal attitudes of the persons
directly concerned, i.e. guest-house and lodging-house proprietors
(although this consideration cannot altogether be ignored),
but rather a particular situation in our society. More particularly,
as we have already suggested, they are the reflection of certain
social attitudes towards coloured people.

4. Summary

A random sample of some 700 private families, guest houses
and lodging-house proprietors showed a definite objection on the
part of some 40 per cent, of the sample to accepting coloured
students in their homes and houses. This percentage, as considera-
tion showed, might well be expected under a more ideal experi-
ment to expand to one of some 60. How far this observable
antipathy against coloured people may be specifically directed

^ For an excellent exposition of such a boarding-house situation see Keate Weston’s
book London Fogy p. 84. On the same subject, Dr. Edwyn Bevan writes in the Spectator
(1931); “To be fair one should recognize that the proprietor of a boarding house who
refused admittance to an Indian may not himself be narrow-minded, nor the people
actually resident in the house. ... In the competition between boarding-houses to
secure inmates, each proprietor has (for his pocket’s sake) to think not only what his
actual boarders object to, but what might be the handicap in securing future boarders.
If he knows that some people object to having a non-European in their company, that is
enough to naake him refuse one admittance.”

APPENDIX I

279

it is impossible from the bare data to say, although the evidence
is perhaps sufficient to indicate some slightly greater degree of
aversion to persons of Negroid stock than any other. On further
examination of the data it was decided on sociological grounds
to regard the material as an index of certain attitudes current in
the “middle-class” section of our society towards coloured people
as a whole. The data are scarcely sufficient for specific differentia-
tion between the various elements which go to make up this
social class; but, assuming the original assumption to be correct,
there is good reason to suppose that aversions against coming
into close social and physical proximity with a coloured person
are at least as strong, if not stronger, among the wealthier, the
more highly educated, and the ecclesiastical groups, as among any
other members of this social stratum.

Tabub I

Approximate Scale of Aversion*^

(Figures denote number of “aversions” in each case)
Europeans only .......

White race only .......

Coloured could /might perhaps be taken
Coloured, only with high recommendations

No Coloured except .....

"3 Preferably no coloured .....

I No coloured, if possible ......

^ No one very dark .......

•S Any, except yellow or black .....

Any, not black .......

fe No coloured ........

Any not coloured .......

^ No black ........

No coloured ........

NOT coloured .......

^ Any, except Africans ......

I Any, but negroes .......

^ No Negroes ........

^ No niggers ........

Nice Hindus might be taken .....

§ Indians if very nice. ......

^ No Indians ........

Any, except Indians ......

^ Japanese, if very nice ......

Jg Might take Japs .......

8 Not Asiatics ........

^ Any but Orientals, Eastern . . . , ,

3

2

3
3

3

4

I

I

I

I

224

13

I

I

I

I

3

I

1

2

4
4
4
1

I

7

13

304

28 o

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

Table a

’‘Aversions” by Districts

London

No. of cases
considered

Percentage
of aversions*^

West Central:

Bloomsbury ....

34

41.9

North-West:

Highgate, Muswell Hill, Goldcrs Green

Hendon, etc. .

45

43-2

Hampstead .....

73

52-7

South-east:

Blackheath, Sydenham, etc.

33

370

South-west:

E. Sheen, Kew, Surbiton

31

390

West:

Chelsea, Victoria, Bayswater, etc.

Extra-London

(mainly southern counties)

120

336

52.5

*

HertSy Surrey^ Essex, etc, .

63

35-0

Kent ......

44

43-2

Sussex ......

73

40.0

Oxford and Cambridge

54

35-2

South-western, etc. ....

131

365

36.6

Totals {percentage terms)

^^Aversions^^

Take any

Blanks

London .... 44.2

9-2

12.8

Extra-London . . . 37.3

i6.2

15.6

Whole London . . . 40.2

. 12.8

14.3

Table 3

**Aversions^* according to Category

London

As per cent,
of sample

Per cent, indicating
aversion^ ^

Private individuals

or families . . 80.0

52.1

Landladies

11.3

36.1

Guest Houses, etc^

8.7

. 61.0

APPENDIX I

281

Table 3 — continued

Extra-London

Private individuals or families . . 85.5

.

39-0

Landladies . . . . .11.4

.

31-2

Guest Houses, etc. .... 3.1

.

45-5

Total Sampled

Private individuals or families . . 82.5

44.1

Landladies . . . . .11.3

,

32.4

Guest Houses, etc. .... 6.2

564

♦The following may also be noted:

As per cent.

Per cent, indicating

of sample

'^aversion

The Higher Educated . . 13.1

41-3

Clergy 3.0

•

47.6

Table 4

Nationality Preferences^

London

“Europeans”

44

French ....

18

Germans ....

13

“Scandinavians” .

1 1

Dutch .....

9

Swiss .....

6

Swedes ....

3

Extra-London

“Europeans”

22

Germans ....

23

French ....

20

Swedes ....

19

“Scandinavians” .

10

Dutch .....

8

Danish ....

5

Americans ....

4

Austrians ....

5

Total Sample

“Europeans”

68

French ....

38

Germans ....

36

Swedes ....

22

“Scandinavians” .

21

Dutch .....

17

Danes ....

8

Americans ....

7

* The totals here shown were obtained by counting as one score each mention of
a nationality in the Questionnaire query “Nationality Preferred”, and by making
the qualification for “entrance” that the specific nationality should occur at least
once as first choice, e.g. answers read — “French, Germans, Panisb, Dutch,” etc.

APPENDIX II

A NOTE ON THE CINEMA AS A FACTOR IN RACIAL

ATTITUDES

It would be extremely interesting, were it possible, to assess
the exact significance of various cultural forces, and in particular
of the cinema, in contributing to the prejudicial attitudes already
described. Several students in America have made a similar
attempt in the context of racial prejudice, but with one or two
exceptions little work has been done in this country. Dr. G. H.
Green, who used attitude tests on several thousands of Welsh
school children, reports that roughly lo per cent, of ‘‘sources for
information’’ regarding national and racial groups were attributed
to the cinema. ^ He comes to the conclusion that

‘‘a whole body of prejudice has been made definite by the ‘dope’ film, and the
films of the Dr. Fu Manchu series. ... I ought, perhaps, to add that we do
not, however, regard the film as creating racial prejudice; but rather as
functioning in the same way as other agencies in making specific and definite
something which already exists.”*

In an experiment carried out in Illinois by Thurstone, it was
demonstrated that the attitudes of an American film audience
towards a people with whom they are unfamiliar was modified
considerably according to whether the films depicting the latter
were favourable or unfavourable in terms of subject matter.^
Commenting further on the influence of the cinema, another
American writer, William Albig, remarks:

Relations between nationalities, class groups, occupational groups,
character groups, and the like, are modified by the opinions they express
about them. ... To a considerable extent the motion pictures have de-
termined how people visualize these types and the opinions. . . .

. . . The adult audience adversely judges the statesman, economic

^ Communicated to the writer by Dr. G. H. Green, who mentionst hat the sources
of alleged rationalizations in this respect were as follows:

About 50% were ascribed to Books read.

Roughly 10% each to Home Experience, Newspapers, School and the
Cinema.

A negligible amount to religious sources; and these practically all hostile
judgments, obviously traceable to missionary propaganda.

• G. H. Green, Geography, vol. 16, 1931, pp. 51-53. “Racial Prejudices among
School Children,”

* L. L. Thurstone, “The Measurement of Social Attitudes”, Jour, Ahn, Soc, P^ch^

vol. 26, pp. 248-69.

282

APPEITOIX II

283

adviser, scientist and business man of the news reel on the scale of values
developed in part from the feature pictures. And the individual may be imbued
with a firm conviction of the truth and reality of his stereotypes because they
are vivid, personal and reiterated (njy italics) — he may have seen Warner Oland
as Charlie Chan in ten pictures, thus fixing his stereotype of Chinese. Such
personal stereotypes are convincing to the common man. Printed descriptions
are rarely so vivid. And it b just this sense of reality that may be so dangerous
to a logical analysis and re-examination of one’s opinions. Thus distortions
may become even more permanent than heretofore.

Superficiality may be disarmingly convincing when provided in pictorial
form. There is a sense of completeness and profundity that is not actually
justified. . . . The usual motion-picture interpretation b almost entirely in
personal terms. Yet thb personal motivation so definitely fits into the pre-
conceptions of the common man that he finds no incongruity and compla-
cently augments his preferences for personal interpretations.*

The following facts may now be assessed in the light of the
above observations.

By far the greater proportion of films shown in British cinemas
are produced in the United States. A very rough estimate is that
approximately two out of every seven visits to the cinema will
include a pictorial representation of the American Negro. ^
The Negro in these cases is always shown in a menial and servile
capacity, and in occupations which leave no doubt about his
social status. He is depicted invariably as a Pullman car attendant,
a porter, a waiter, a manservant, an odd job man, and even in
the boxing ring (where other precedents seem particularly
obvious) he is rarely, if ever, anything more than a sparring
partner. The position of his wife and children is seen to be
similar. Negro women on the screen are cooks, parlourmaids,
nurses, etc. Negro children sometimes receive slight elevation of
status when they are shown at play with white children, but it
does not continue up to adolescence. The general psychology of
the Negro is delineated similarly on unvarying lines. He is of a
good-natured, easy-going temperament, and is intensely super-
stitious with a peculiar fear of ghosts. His “best” quality is
undoubtedly his faithfulness, but he also possesses a number of
mannerisms, and one of these is a trick of rolling the eyeballs.

In the great majority of films in which coloured people
are depicted more extensively, the actual “Colonial” scene or
setting serves merely as a background for the working out of a
purely European plot in which the presence of the coloured

^ W. Albig, Public Opinion, p. 385.

^ A slightly conservative estimate on the basis of some fifty visits, as far as possible
**at random**, to the cinema.

NEGROES IN BRITAIN

284

people themselves is partly or wholly incidental. The African
“native”, for example, is shown as the conventional “barbarian”,
semi-naked, painted, and often grotesque in his make-up. His
activities are depicted as warlike, sometimes cannibalistic, and
invariably of the most uncouth character. Under more “settled”
conditions, he is shown as a servant to Europeans, as an unskilled
worker in the mines, etc.^ Occasionally, a Paul Robeson film
depicts him in a somewhat more dignified, albeit “tribal” r61e,
but films showing the Negro living under “civilised” conditions
and living and acting in a way approved by the standards of
normal European behaviour are virtually non-existent, in either
“long” or “short” form.

' The above paragraph is based on a personal survey of film reviews and synoi^cs
over a period of five recent years, almost entirely from periodicals of the Briti^ Film
Institute.

INDEX

Abolitionists, 203, 205-7
Accommodation, to white environ-
ment, 1 60- 1
Achimota College, 249
Adae festival, 148 and n.
Adinarayaniah, S. P., 209-10 n.
Adolescents, early development, 145
Advance Notes, 123
Advertisements, for sale of Negroes,
169-70

Africa, growth of race prejudice,
21 1-12

„ , home life of coloured persons

in, 249

„ , British ignorance of, 259

Africa Company, 187-8
“African,” use of term, 119
African Institution, 190
African Training Institute, 192
Age, apparent, 104
Aggrey House, 194/1.

Ahmed, Rollo, 256 n.

Air Raid wardens, 116-117

Albig, W., 282-3

Alcoholic drinks in caf6s, 48

Alien seamen, 36-7

Aliens Orders (1920-5), 63 ff., 74, 76

Aliens Order controversy, 29, 63 ff.,

133

Alihan, M. A., 18 /z.

Allen, C. K., 222
Alleys, 93

Amenities, of dock area, 42, 83 95

„ , of houses, 125

American colour prejudice, effect on
British, 206

Anderson, D. G., 236 n.^ 262 n,
Andrews, W., 172 «.

Anglo-Catholic church, 147
Anker, Katharine, 177
Anthropological and sociological
studies, 8

Anthropology, neglect in schools,
218-20

Anthropometry, 29
Apprenticeship, 159, 177, 180
Approaches, to survey area, 45
Arab boarding-houses^ 40

Arabs, 88, 1 10-12, 118-19, 133, 134
150

„ , as husbands, 139

Aspiration, social, 159-60
Assessments, 124-5
Athletics, and social acceptance, 246
Attitudes to coloured persons, reasons
for, 227-9

Attraction to coloured persons,
reasons for, 243
Austen, Jane, 192
Aversion, alleged natural, 237-8

Babies, unwanted, sale of, 172
“Backhanding,” 39 and n., 51
Bandsmen, Army, Negroes and, 190
Baptism, 175
Barber, Francis, 178
Barnes, Leonard, 216, 217/2.
Barsally, King of, 187 /?.

Bartlett, C. F., 23 /i.

Bartolozzi, 199
Barzun, Jacques, 213/2.

Bathrooms, 125 n.

Beggars, Negroes as, 184, 185
Behn, Aphra, 174
Benedict, Ruth, 19/2.

Best, Mr. Justice, 19 1 /2.

“Best room,” 131/2.

Betting, 14 1-2
Bevan, Edwyn, 278 n.

Bills of Sale, 170
Biology, in schools, 22 1
Birkenhead, 255 n.

Birth rate, 98

“Black,” associations of word, 230 /2.
Blackburn, Julian, 32-3 n.
Blackstone, 179
Boarding-houses, 94, 124

,, ,, , masters, 38-40

,, ,, , masters, and out-

relief, 79

„ ,, , regulations for,

39 n.y 40

„ „ , attitude to coloured

persons, 105,
271 ff.

Bogardus, E. S., 2 n.

285

286

INDEX

Booth, Charles, 13-14
Boswell, James, 178
Boundaries, of survey area, 44-5
Boys’ club, 143 ’

Bracken, Brendan, 224
Branding, 170
Bristol, 170 175 w.

Britain, first Negroes in, 165-6
„ , Negro population, 170

„ , Negroes in pre-Roman, 165

British Council for the Welfare of the
Merchant Marine, 69 n.

British Shipping (Assistance) Act

(1935), 32«-. 71. 73ff-

British Social Hygiene Council,
69 n.

Brothels, 48
Brown, F., 246 n.

Brown, G. St. Orde, 215 n.

Brown, W. G., 62 n.

Budgets, family, 126-30
Buffaloes, 160
Burgess, E. W., 54 w.

Burt, C., 17

Bute Street, 45, 47-52, 55, 90 n.,
106 107, 132 n,y

144

,, „ , as vice quarter, 50-1

„ „ , as matrimonial agency,

114

Bute Town, 33
Butts, Anthony, 242 n.

Caesar, John, 177
“Caft girls,” 49, 49-50 n.

Cafes, 42-3, 47, 48-52, 55, 69n.,
107 n,

„ , and prostitution, 49
„ , interlinked, 49 n,

,, , police and, 50
Cake-walk, 231 n,

Cambridge University, 192, 193, 244
Cardiff, 34-5

,, , coloured community, num-

bers, 44

„ , coloured community, distri-

bution, 45-7

„ , coloured community, how

constituted, 46-7
,, , coloured community first

appearance, 54 n., 56-7
,, , dock area, 41-3
„ , survey area, 44 ff.

„ , „ history, 51-2

Carmichael, H., 23 n.

Cephalic index, 89
Ceremonies, African, 148
Charles, Mr. Justice, 106 «.

Chicago school, 17

„ , sexual irregularity in, 138

Children, and public assistance, 69
,, , employment of, 69

„ , position of, 78

,, , health, 103

,, , “mixed blood,” 1 12-13

,, , relations with home, 1 5 1-3

,, , discipline, 154.

,, , racial proportions, 86

,, , racial characteristics, 88-9

,, , illegitimate, 137-8

„ , attitude to, 138, 139, 155

„ , punishments, 1 55 w.

„ , alleged lack of control,

153-5

„ , education, 155-9

Chinese, 55

,, seamen, 185-6
,, , white reaction to, 228

Christianity, and colour prejudice,
241, 267

„ , and slavery, 173-4, ^75

Church, and ordination of coloured
persons, 263-4
Churches, 47, 95
Cinemas, 83 n., 143-4

,, , influence on racial atti-

tudes, 282-4

City, and community life, 2-4
Clarke, T. G. B., 28 n.
Class-consciousness, 217-18
„ „ , colour-, 232

Class-struggle, and colour prejudice,
239-40

Clubs, 95, 1 12, 141 n., 143-4
Coal trade slump, effects, 60-1 n.
Codrington College, 192
Coleridge, S. T., 196 «.

Collars, for Negro servants, 167-8
Colonial Defence League, no, 113,
i33> 134-5

Colonial Office, 193, 194^1.

Colonial Social Service course, 248
Colonies, English ignorance of, 219
“Colour line,” in Cardiff, 43 n,

„ „ , and sexual relation-

ships, 139-40

Colour prejudice, 26, 31-2, 84, 104-7

INDEX

Colour prejudice, English and French,
compared, 208-10, 215
“Coloured,” use of term, 119-20
Coloured Seamen’s Union, 75, 133
Commissions on boarding-out, 39
Communist Party, 113, 134, 161
Community area, 17 ff.

Community, meaning, 1-2
Competition, white - coloured, for
work, 60-2

Constantine, Learie, 224, 240
Contacts, how made, 29 ff.
“Contamination” by coloured
persons, 230
Convicts, as slaves, 172
Co-operation, inter - racial, 116-17,
.^33

„ , with whites, objection

to, 27 n.

Coupland, R., 171
Cowper, 182 n.

Grad, Joseph, 51
Crap-shooting, 140-1
Credit, use of, 13 1 n.

Cricket, 140
Crime, 132

Cuffee, Capt. Paul, 190 n.

Curiosity, unwelcome, 258-60

Dalhousie, 211 n.

Dance halls, 224-5
Dancing, 144-5
Davis, Robert, 187 n.

Day, Thomas, 174
Death rate, 98
Defoe, D., 174, 202 n.
Delinquency, 15, 132
Dental caries, 103
Detweiler, F. G., 213
Devonshire, Duchess of, 167
Dice-playing, 140-1
Diphtheria, 102
Discussions, 143
Docks, Cardiff, 34, 106-7, ^ 3 ^
Dog racing, 142
Domestic relations, 138-9
Donkeymen, 109
Dress, at weddings, 147 n.
Drink, 15 n., 48, 144
Drumming, 148
Dryden, J., 168 n.

Durham University, 192

287

East and West Friendship Council,

193

East India Company, 185-6, 210 n.,
2H

Ecological approach to survey work,

17

Ecology of survey area, 53-5
Education of children, 155-9

,, of adults, standard, 156
Egerton, F. G. C., 259 n.

Elphinstone, Sir M., 21 1 n,
Emmanuel, Anthony, 177
Employers, and coloured juveniles,
70-1 n.

Employment bureau, juvenile, 157
Employment, difficulty in finding,
257. See Juvenile Employment
Entertainment, as employment, 157
Equiano, Olandah, 185 n., 201 n.
Etiquette, 1 19-21

Evangelical movement, 21 1 n., 213 n.
Evans, Capt. A., 66
Evolution, 212

Examinations, school, 220 n., 221
Executions, public, 173
Extra-marital relationships, 137-8

Family, decline of, 2

„ , as sociological unit, 5

,, , size of, 100 n.

» , life, 135 ff.

Farnsworth, 237 n.

Fasting, among Moslems, 150 n.

Fatalism, 149

Fiction, Negro in, 203-5

Fielding, Sir John, 176

First World War, and Negro influx,

56, 194

Firth, R., 8, 1 1 w., 16
Fletcher, Miss M. E., 70, 102
Footmen, Negroes as, 190
Fourah Bay College, 192
France, attitude to coloured peoples,
208-9, 209-10 w., 215
Frazer, W., 98 n,

Freetown, 184
Friendliness, 31
Funerals, 109, 146
Furniture, 94

„ , fictitious purchase of, 40

Gainsborough, 199
Gambling, 15 n., 13 1, 133, 140-2

288

INDEX

Garratt, G. T., 217 n.

Garrick, D., 167, 196 w., 200
Gentleman^ s Magazine y 173, 182 «.
George I, 199
George IV, 199
Germany, 193 n.

Ginsberg, M., 5
Girls* social activities, 143
Glamorganshire Canal, 45 and n.
Gobineau, Comte de, 212 n.

Gold Coast, 187 n.

Gold Coastians, 119, 121 n., 148
Government, and colour prejudice,
223-4

Grant, Madison, 213 n.

Green, G. H., 282
Gregory, J. W., 236 n.

Grimaldi caves, 165
Guest houses, and coloured guests,
225, 271 ff.

“Half-castes,” use of term, 119; see
Mixed Bloods

Hammond, J. L. and B., 207 n,
Hankins, F. H,, 213
Hanway, Jonas, 184
Happiness, domestic, 138-9
Hardwicke, Lord, 171, 175, 18 1
Harris, Sir John, 193
Hawkers, as souteneurs, 50 n,
Hawkins, Sir John, 165
Hayter, Bp., 173
Health conditions, 102-3
Hemmerde, G., 224 n.

History textbooks, 219-20
Hoar, Prince, 179 n,, 182-4 ^-5 ^^9
196-7 n.

Holt, Lord Chief Justice, 171, 179 n.
Home life, children’s, 15 1-3

,, reactions, to coloured persons,
220, 221, 235

Homeland, attitude to, 120
Hospitals, and coloured students,
256 258

Hostels, Colonial, 95 w., 140 w., 193,
194 w., 255

Hotels, and coloured persons, 105,
220, 221, 231, 235
Households, analysis of, 10 1
„ , irregular, 137-8

Houses, occupation-rate 100
„ , rents, 124-6

Housing, 92-4, 9^102

Hueffer, O. M., 136 n., 154 n.

Hull, 244

Huxley, T. H., 208
Hypergamy, 234 w., 238

Ignorance of Colonial Empire, 220
Illegitimacy, 137-8
Indentured servants, 177
India, 210-1 1

Indians, colour prejudice against, 2 1 7
Infant mortality, 96
Instability, 90-2
Insularity, British, 238
Intermarriage, attitude to, 233, 234-
6, 239

Interviews, 8-10, 21, 31-3
Investigation, methods, 13-16
Irish, sale of, as slaves, 172
Islam, see Moslems

Jeaffreson, J. C., 172 n,

Jekyll, Joseph, 201
Jerrold, Douglas, 203-4
Johnson, Samuel, 174, 178
Johnston, Sir Harry, 193 and n.

Jones, Rev. E. N., 257, 263-4
Juvenile crime, 132
Juveniles, coloured, employment of,
69-70, 122 w., 156-9

Kanaka, D. F., 260, 261
Kean, E., 196 n.

Keith, Sir Arthur, 236
Kingsley, Mary, 213 w.

Klaatsch, 212 n,

Klineberg, O., 145 n,

Kru, 134

Lambert, R. S., 221 n.

Landladies, and coloured persons,
225, 271 ff.

Lapiere, R. T., 208-9, 215, 237 n,

Lascars, 185-6

Lasker, B., 235-6, 237 n.

Latimer, 183

League of Coloured Peoples, 66, 78,
I93> 258
Lice, 102 n.

Licensing hours, 69 n.

Linguistic attainments, 156
Linton, Ralph, 212 n.

INDEX

Lisle, David, 179

Liverpool, 40 n., 56, 57, 69, 70, 84,

92, 125, 148, 255
Liverpool University, 192 w.

Lodgers, proportion of, 90-1
„ , charges for, 124

,, , income from, 128 «

„ , and family, 136

Lodging - houses, seamen’s, see
Boarding-houses

Lodgings, difficulty in finding, 256
Logan, D. G., 231
Lok, John, 166
London, surveys of, 14-16
London School of Economics, 1 4
London University, 192, 193
Long, 197 «.

Loudoun Square, 46, 52 ffi, 56, 93,
100, 107

Lowe, Sylvia, 260
Lynd, R. and H., 20-2

Macaulay, Zachary, 190
MacCrone, 1 . D., 198 n., 21 1 ;z., 214^
Macinnes, C. M., 166, 170 w., 182 n.,
198 n., 207 n,

Maciver, R. M., i
McKenzie, 18 n.

Mackenzic-Grieve, A., 168
Madge, Charles, 16
Maintenance grants, school, 157 n.
Malays, 1 1 o, 1 1 9
Malnutrition, 103
Maltese, as cafe proprietors, 52
Mansfield judgment, 17 1, 18 1, 182,
198

Margery, Philip, 84-5
“Marginal man,” 160
Marital selection, principles of,

1 17-19

Marriages, 137

„ , and pregnancy, 138

„ , mixed, 27 1 14, i I7-I9>

139. 234-6

Married persons, proportions, 90
Marson, Una, 253-4, 256 n.
Mass-observation, 9 ii 16
Mayhew, H., 19
Men’s club, 143
Merseyside Survey, 13 w.

Methodist Church, 53, 95, 143, 145,
146-7

Methods, of present survey, 25-'53

289

Methods, general, see Social Surveys
“Middletown,” 20-2
Migration, tendencies to, 92
Missionaries, influence of, 213 and n,
“Mixed Bloods,” 1 12-13, 159-61
„ „ , numbers, 86

,, „ , classification, 88-9

Money, attitude to, 123, 142 n.
Moneylending, 131
Montagu, Duke of, 199
Morgan, Lewis, 2 1 2 n.

Moslems, 108, no- 12, 149-50

Mosque, 94, 1 1 1

Moton, R. R., 1 19, 159 w.

Moyne, Lord, 223

Mulatto heiresses, English education
of, 192

Multiple tenancy, 99
Mumfbrd, W. B., 214 n., 215 n.
Munro, Sir Thomas, 211 n,

Muralt, 173 n,

Nadel, S. F., 9
Naimbanna, 189-90, 201 n.

Names, classical, for Negro servants,
168

National Maritime Board, 36 and
62 n.

National Union of Seamen, 76, 78
Nationalities, of community, 85
“Natural area,” 17-18
Naturalisation, 75
“Negro,” use of term, 119
Negroes, in i8th century, 197-8, 202
Neurasthenia, 262

“Nigger,” implications of term, 119,

253

“Noble savage,” 202
Nursing students, 256

Observation, 9, 10
Occupation, and community, 2
Occupations, 12 1-2

„ , women’s, 122

O’Connell, H., 75

Official attitude to coloured persons,

32-3

Officials, British, 215-17
Oldfield, 32-3 n,

Omai, 202, 20 2-3 n,

Othello y 195-6
Out-relief, 79-81, 92
Overcrowding, 98-102

INDEX

290

Overcrowding, and children, 1 52, 158
Oxford University, 243

Parents, attitude of children to, 152-3
Park, R. E., 3 n., 18 n., 54 and n.,
234 n.

Parliament, apathy to Colonial
matters, 222

„ , and coloured labour.

Participation in community life, 29 n.

Passports, 64-5

Pedlars, Oriental, 19 1

Pepys, Samuel, 166

Perham, Margery, 221, 224

Phobias, 229

Physical features, 88-9

,, repulsion, to coloured per-
sons, 220 ff.

Physique, 103-4

Pigmentation, degree of, and social
status, 1 18, 251
Police, attitude to, 132-3
„ , and gambling, 141

“Politicians,” 113
Polyandry, 137
Pool, seamen’s, 140
“Poor whites,” 116, 136
Pope, Alexander, 174
Population, Negro, in Britain, 170
„ , of survey area, 44, 85-7

Pork, Moslems and, 150 n.

Poverty, investigation of, 14
Powell, Mr. Justice, 17 1
Precocity, adolescent, 145
Professional men, coloured, 248
Progress, Western, 214
Promiscuity, 137

Property values, and coloured occu-
pation, 104-5
Prostitutes, 49-51, 114

„ , in Chicago, 138

,, , removal to Sierra Leone,

184-5

Psychological attitudes, interpretation

of, 9

Public houses, 15-16 n., 42, 94
„ „ , women and, 12 1

Quakers, and slavery, 174
Quaque, 187 n.

Questionnaire, 10-12, 21, 23, 126,
163-4, 219, 220, 274 w.

Racial composition, 85-7, 108 ff.
Racialist theories, 212-14
Radial expansion, 54
Reckless, Walter, 51 n.

Records, written, as enquiry
technique, 12
Reed, George, 77 n.

Register, Live, 75-6, 85
Registration, 64 n.

Religion, 146 ff.

Rents, 146 ff

Repatriation, 77, 82, 83-4
Resistance, by persons interviewed,

32

„ , to coloured persons, 105,

225-6

Richards, A. I., 7
Richardson, Capt., 41 42 43

81-3, 102 w.

Riots, racial (of 1919), 57-60, 84
„ , Arab, 134
Rogers, John, 165
Rowntree, B. S., 13-14
Royal Empire Society, 220

Sadler, Michael, 207
Sailors’ Home, 38
St. Georges, Chevalier, 199
St. Giles’ Blackbirds, 183
St. Mary’s Church, 53, 144, 147
Salutations, 12 1
Sancho, Ignatius, 1 99-201
Saving, 131

Scapegoat, Negro as, 230

Scarlet fever, 102

School, Moslem, iii, 156

School meals centre, 96

Schools, coloured children in, 15 1,

155-9

„ , secondary, 157-8

„ , African, 249

,, , West Indian, 250

Scotland, 172, 182 n.

Seafaring, as occupation, 122
Seamen, foreign, 35-7

„ , conditions of British, 37

„ , lodging arrangements, 39-

41

,, , relation to rest of com-

munity, 43 n,

„ , wages, 123

,, , Negro, in 19th century, 191

,, , relations of white and

coloured, 60-2

INDEX 291

Second World War, coloured influx
during, 247
Sectionalism, 133, 134
Sekyi, Kobina, 218 259 261

Servants, Negro, 166, 167 fT.

Sex ratio, 90

Sexes, social relations of, 1 2 1
Sexual attraction, white-coloured,
115W.

Sexual irregularities, 137
Shakespeare, 195

Sharp, Granville, 173, 176, 178-82,
183, 184, 197, 202
Sharpe, N., 100 118, 128, 138

Shaw, G. R., 12, 15 w., 17
Sheikh, iii, 150 w.

Shipping depression (i 929 -34), 72 n.
„ industry, and coloured com-

munity, 35 ff.

Ships, British, and slavery, 191
Shops, 94

Sierra Leone, 147 n,

„ „ , settlement plan, 184

Silures, 165

Slave population, British, 1 70 n.

Slave trade, 166, 171, 198 and n.
Slaves, sale of, in Britain, 171 ff.

„ , runaway, 175

Slop-chest, 40 n.

Slum conditions on ships, 97
Slums, 92
Smeatham, 184

Smell, alleged, of coloured persons,
228, 238

Smith, Elliot, 236
Social pathology, 5
Social status, criteria of, 118-19
Social surveys, aims, 5-7

„ „ , how initiated, 6 n,

„ ,, , sources of material,

6-7

„ ,, , methods, 8 ff., 13 ff.,

22-3

,, ,, , in America, 17 ff.

Society for the Education of Africans,
189

Soldiers, coloured, in Second World
War, 240
Solicitation, 49
Solidarity, group, 269
Somalis, 104, no, inn., 134
„ , and gambling, 142

Somersett, James, 18 1

Sons of Africa, 28, 109-10, 113,

i34-5» 139 H4
Sorcery, 148
Souteneurs, 50-1 n.

South Africa, 2 n n.

South Shields, 81 n.

Sparling, G. L., 228 n.

Special Restriction Order, 63 ff.
Spring, Howard, 55 n.

Steele, R., 173
Sterne, L., 174, 200 n.

Stoddard, Lothrop, 2 1 3 n.

Stokers, Negro, 67 n.

Stoll, E. E., 195-6 n.

Stonequist, E. V., 160
Storck, J., 214
Stratton, G. M., 239
Streets, life in, 140
Strike, maritime (1911), 35-6
Strong, Jonathan, 179
Students, Negro, first in Britain,
186 ff.

,, „ , at present day,

247-8

,, „ , provenance of, 247

Subletting, 99-100, 125-6
Subsidy, shipping, 72-3
Succession, ecological, 54 n.

Sumner, W. G., 214 n., 240, 268 n.
“Superiority” attitude, 265 n.
Superstition, 149

Suspicion, of social survey enquiries,
27-28

Swansea, 69
“System, the,” 37

Tacitus, 165

Talbot, Lord, 171, 175, 18 1
Technique of survey, 26-9
Teignmouth, Lord, 213
Textbooks, school, 219, 220 «., 221 n.
Thackeray, W. M., 203, 204-5, 206 n,
Thomas, W. L, 10 n., 12 n., 133 n.
Thornton, Henry, 189
Thornton, R. H., 60 n., 61 «., 98 n,
“Tiger Bay,” 52, 106
Titterton, W. R., 231 n,
Torridzonian Society, 187 n.

Tramp Shipping Administrative
Committee, 72
Tramp trade, Cardiff, 35
Transport and General Workers*
Union, 76

INDEX

292

Trevelyan, Mary, 256 n., 262, 263
Trevor, J. C., 89

Trinity College, Dublin, 192 243

Truck, 39 n.

Tuberculosis, 82, 96-8
Tupper, Capt., 36 37 n., 41 n.

Uncle TonCs Cabin, 206
Unemployment, 57, 60, 67-8, 73
Unemployment Assistance Board, 80
Unions, seamen’s, and coloured
labour, 74 ff.

Universities, and coloured persons,

243

Vassa, Gustavus, 185 n., 201 n.
Venereal Disease, 51, 82, 102 n.
Venice, 167

Vernon, P. E., 11-12, 12 n,

Victoria League, 193
Villeinage, 179
Visiting, home, 12 1 n.

Wages, 123-4
Wakes, 148
Wales, 265, 267 «.

Wallace, Sir Robert, 224 n.

Ward, S. R., 206

Weddings, 146-7

Welfare clinics, 95-6

Wells, A. F., 6

Wesley, John, 173

West, V. Sackville, 167, 168 n.

West African Students’ Union, 193,

194

West Africans, 88, 108-10, 120
West Indian technicians, 248-9, 251
West Indians, io8~io, 133, 134

, and registration, 65

West Indians, racial affinities, 88
„ „ , h o m e background,

250-1

,, ,, , reactions to British,

252 ff., 255

West Indies, and Negro slavery,

175-6

White, Charles, 212 n.

Whites, resident in coloured area, 1 16
Wilson, J. Greenwood, 97
Wilson, J. Havelock, 35-6
Wirth, Louis, 43 n.

Wise, John, 183

Withdrawal, from white contacts,
261-2

Wives, sale of, 172 and n.

Women, 113-15

„ , forms of address and refer-

ence to, 120, 137
„ , occupations of, 122

,, , domestic happiness of,

138-9 .

„ , and religion, 149

„ , status in coloured com-

munities, 238
Women’s Institute, 1 1 5
Working class, and colour contacts,

232-3

Wyndham, H. A., 187-8 n.

York, survey of, 14
Young, Mrs., 49 n,

Y.M.G.A., 266
Youth Movement, 112

Zong, 196 n.

Zorbaugh, H. W., 2 w., 17 n., 18, 19,
54«., 92 «., 125 n.

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