Late-19th Century Manuscript by an American, "Travels in the West Indies"

1875. Paperback. Near Fine. Original unpublished manuscript, black ink on lined paper, in handsome script; 195 x 246 mm; pp. 29. An engaging narrative by a young U. S. Navy chaplain, offering brief histories and descriptions of the places he visits, and remarks on race, slavery and -- briefly -- other political views such as education and women's rights. He visits St. Thomas, St. Croix, Martinique, Baradoes, Trinidad, Jamaica, and Havana -- and offers blunt, unflinching portrayals of their landscapes, people, and cultures. Unlike St. Thomas, "one of the dirtiest, most unattractive places I ever visited," Saint Croix is "lovely and healthy." Further, after the slaves St. Croix revolted and won their freedom in 1831, "very stringent laws were made for their regulation... No distinction is made with regard to sex. Working gangs are composed of men and women, working side by side, and receiving equal pay. O! Paradise of Women's Rights! Would that Susan B. and others whome we might mention, would immediately emigrate to that fair land, and there enjoy in its fullness that equality for which they have so long sighed in vain! -- As they have compulsory education, all the younger people read, write, and have some knowledge of the other common branches. Their system works well, and it is a great pity that some such laws could not have been made for our South States, when such a herd of ignoramuses was turned loose in our political pasture, to graze the sweetest thistles." In Jamaica, he is taken by the sight of a mixed race family, a black man married to a white woman, with "a large family of children... the most wonderful variety of shade and feature. The blending of colors was truly artistic... prejudice on account of color was entirely prevented by family affection. Let us pause a moment to think upon the awful stupidity of those people who cannot see the sublimity of such a system." He also offers a 3-page historical narrative of the 1831 Jamaica slave revolt, anti-imperialist in tone, and extremely graphic in its litany of cruelties against inflicted against black people. He concludes with his 1875 stop in Havana, in which the fleet gains custody of a large group of Americans who were taken prisoner by the Spanish in 1873.