Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1880-08-12

ably, and had the opportunity of seeing
the negro in nearly all positions and
conditions of life, YOU will. perhaps,
permit me to correct a false impress
sion under which you seem to be labor
ing IN connection with the race to
which, am proud to say it have
the honor to belong. You say: "A
successful negro merchant writing the
word negro with small II or shop
keeper seems to be unheard of and
you quote from the work YOU review
another sentence in keeping with yours
namely: i have scarcely found a
negro who has risen in the mercantile
world higher than an apple-stall in the
market do not know your premis-
es, but whatever they are, they must
be very faulty, since they have led YOU
to conclusion that cannot stand when
confronted by real facts, facts such as
would have confronted Sir George
Campbell in the face had he, while
away from home, visited few of the
more advanced West Indian colonies in
conjunction with the United States of
America, whence he seems to have de-
rived his apple-stall climax opinion of
the negrO's mercantile abilities. [ am
angry neither with you nor Sir George.
for believe your statements are made
i'll good faith; still, | cannot but express
my surprise that he or you should have
joined the ranks of those with whom
the world swarms just now, who are
constantly asserting painful things that
have no relation of truth in connection
with the black man. [ need hardly do
more, | am persuaded, than to refer to
one or two instances of negro mercan-
tile success to show how very unfair is
that wholesale assertion by Sir George
that | have taken the liberty to direct
your attention to.
When | was in st. Vincent, it was my
good fortune to meet the Hon. William
Lynch, Il merchant doing the most ex-
tenslve business in the island as a fancy
storekeeper, etc. He was also mem
Der of her majesty's privy council and
an assistant, judge of the supreme
court of the country. [ had the pleas
ure of meeting one of his sons as
barriSter-at-law in another colony; an
other Of them was in his fathers count
ing-house; and 4 third was travelling
1AuIOBC, uOUOllCSS " CA
his mind. Mr.. Lynch has a history.
he has been slave. In this respect
he and [, and the family with which |
am connected, differ. He had been
slave, | say; and it must rebound to his
credit that within a comparatively
short period of his emancipation he
owned the largest store in the country
where he had been enslaved, and en-
ployed to wait at his counter one of the
sons of his former master.
In Barbados | was delighted with
the negro family Bourne, doing an i'm
mense business as merchants. The
head of this family had been Il slave also.
One of his sons, Nathaniel, had not
long returned from a visit to Paris
when | was at Bridgetown, AID was con-
Quoting the store in the capital, while
his father managed the sugar estates in
the country. Alexander Pierre, OF
Trinidad, to say nothing of Monsieur
Ellie, etc, was nothing short of mer-
chant prince. These men whose names
I have given are, like myself, pure ne
groes; [ am happy to say that their
conduct, either in private or public life,
is such as none on earth need be
ashamed of"