Page:The Under-Ground Railroad.djvu/150

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130

ture, residing upon and cultivating their own farms. One farm near Chatham, of which place we shall speak hereafter, owned and cultivated by a coloured man, recently deceased, is regarded, evenby those not so favourably disposed to the Negro race, to be the model farm of the community. It is now cultivated by his family, and still retains its former character.

It is a generally admitted fact in Canada, that the coloured people are much better farmers than the Irish, or even Canadian French. The better portion live in two-story frame houses, painted white on the ontside; now and then there is a respectable barn on the premises, around which are fowls, hogs, horses, cows, and occasionally sheep,—but less attention is paid to the latter than to any other kind of stock. The majority live in log houses, generally one room in which yon sometimes see a looking-glass, one or two bedsteads, a bureau, &c. Generally a garden is connected with the house, in which are vegetables growing luxuriantly; here the mistress occupies herself from two o'clock in the afternoon till five in the evening, and perhaps later. I am decidedly of opinion, that no people could do better under similar circumstances, than the Fugitive Slaves, and the coloured population, are now doing in Canada. I often think many of the friends of the Negro race, expect too much in too short a time, from the emanci-