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 When they arrived at the gate of a city, they 4f required t4
 alight from their horse; they were disqualified for~itjg at
 white man's table, for frequenting the same school, for o
 ing the same place atchurch, for having the same name, for ben
 interred in the same cemetery, for receiving the succession of hid
 property. Thus the son was unable to take his food at his fa-
 ther's board, kneel beside his father in his devotions, bear hi.
 father's name, lie in his father's tomb, succeed to his father's
 property, -to such an extent were the rights and affections of
 nature reversed and confounded. The disqualification pursued!
 its victims until during six consecutive generations the white
 blood had become purified from its original stain.
 Among the men of color existed every various shade. Some
 had as fair a complexion as ordinary Europeans; with others
 the hue was nearly as sable as that of the pure nepr blood.
 The mulatto, offspring of a white man and a negrt-ss, Ibrmed
 the first degree of color. The child ol' a white man by a!
 mulatto woman was called a qioro'ri,,mn, the zeconrl degree
 from a white father and a quarteroon mother was. born the male
 tierceroon,-the third degree; the union of a white man within
 a female tiereeroon produced the metif, the fourth degree of
 color. The remaining varieties, if named, are barely distin-
 guishable.
 Lamentable is it to think that the troubles we are about to
 describe, and which might be designated the ir r .fr/-ie skin,
 should have flowed from diversities so slligt, variable evanes-
 cent, and every way so inconsiderable. It would almost seem.
 as if human passions only needed an excuse, and as if the
 slightest excuse would serve as a pretext and a cover for their1
 riotous excesses.
 On their side, the men of color, laboring under the sense o
 their personal and social injuries, tolerated, if they did nol
 encourage in themselves, low and vindictive passions. Their
 pride of blood was the more intense the less they possessed of;
 the coveted and privileged color. Hiughty anJd dIidainful,
 toward the blacks, whom they despi.red, they were sc:ornfu






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