White trader

“ The white trader was an old bird and not easily put off any object he had in view, so stuck to his right of starting trade in the country, and by liberal presents to the new chief at last succeeded in commencing operations, with the result that the new chief died in a very short time and the white man, who was put in charge of the factory, was shot dead whilst passing through a narrow creek on his way to see his senior agent, this being done in the interior country so as to throw the blame upon the people he was trading with. ”

“ Of course, such an intrusion into the sacred official class by a common trader, who actually understood the natives—as far as a white man may—and was able to exercise a kindly influence over them, was to be prevented at all hazards, even at the cost of the said trader’s life if need be. ”

“ Some of them are as plucky as they are coarse, and as jolly as they are muscular; but it is deplorable to think that they are the men who are civilising and forming the future of the natives, and with such guides it is not surprising that they steal and murder, and that in some parts no trader dare leave his store for a night lest it be sacked by daybreak. A trader’s existence is no life for a peaceful white man ”

“ Putting this and that together, his natural shrewdness stimulated by his desire for money and for Dove-eye, the trader concluded that there must be a white man at the bottom of the mystery, and that the white man was concealed at the lodge of the Big Medicine, he determined to reconnoiter that position, and to make such discoveries as he could, with as little danger to himself as possible. ”

“ They would also be benefitted by observing our manners and customs, adopting our style of dress, learning the value of property, and gaining some knowledge of agriculture and the use of mechanical tools, and implements of husbandry. But the most important advantage to be gained by their trading within the United States, would be in their protection from imposition. It has been truly and forcibly remarked,
"Humanity shudders at the recital of the nefarious acts practised by the white traders upon the Indians. Yet not half of them are known or dreamed of by the American people. ”

“ They could not fight the Indians successfully, and they were willing to submit to such treatment because of the profit in the trade they carried on with their red masters.
If any one wants fully to appreciate how degrading trade is to the human soul, let him read the stories of white traders among red buyers. ”

“ By counting the knots and notches he knew just how much the ivory, rubber and peanuts had cost him; he also knew how much each man would “eat” on the road, and therefore he was quite able to ask of, and only accept from, the white traders a price that would pay for his stuff, meet the expenses of his carriers, and leave him a fair margin of profit for his risk of capital and trouble.
After months of petty trading on the markets, sufficient rubber, peanuts and ivory were collected 231to warrant a journey to the coast. ”

“ Indeed such a lamentable want of morality has been displayed by the white traders in their contests for the interests of their respective companies, that it would require a long series of good conduct to efface from the minds of the native population the ideas they have formed of the white character. ”

“ This market within the old city, in its entirety, is the everyday mart of the inhabitants and does not greatly concern the white traders, who buy, at their own warehouses in the European segregation outside the walls, their stacks of hides and tons of ground-nuts and beans, which are the rich exports from the place. ”

“ Each nation of Indians practises every art they can devise, [pg311] to prevent white traders from trafficking with their neighbours, in order to engross as much as possible of the trade themselves, and to be the carriers at second hand to the others. For this purpose they sometimes intrigue deeply, and resort to artful expedients. "You do not treat your traders as we do," said a cunning Oto to some Pawnees; "we dictate to them the rate of exchanges; and if they persist in refusing to comply, we use force to compel them ”

“ The white traders in the maritime districts take no pains to counteract this unhappy prejudice, always performing their own devotions in secret, and seldom condescending to converse with the negroes in a friendly and instructive manner. ”

“ When one agent is removed they select his friend to succeed him, and so the stealing goes on. The matter of their traders alone is enough to drive the Indians hostile. It would drive a white man hostile to be treated as we are treated, and to be charged prices as our traders charge us for goods. If an Indian succeeds in getting a dollar he takes it to the store to trade, and what he receives in return for it amounts to probably half a dime. We want the monopoly of trading stores stopped. The work, the labor, everything is monopolized by white men, who have everything their own way. ”

“ The visits of the traders are exceedingly valuable, furnishing all kinds of tools, weapons and ornaments, which constitute the wealth of the savage. The natives, having purchased these with articles which to themselves are comparatively valueless, can sell their superabundance to the inland Alfoërs, and make an enormous profit on their bargain. If the white men were allowed to go inland and trade directly with the natives, their profitable traffic would be broken up. ”

“ The keepers and procurers are the paid agents of the men who foot the bill. Every dollar, with the burning name of God upon it, that any man spends there makes him a stockholder in the white slave market and a partner in the traffic in girls. The men who support the hideous business are the ultimate white slave traders, and when their hired men, the divekeepers and procurers, come to judgment and condemnation, the men who supported them in crime will be arraigned beside them and punished with them. ”

“ Fortunately, there are a great many of these in all parts of the Southern States, and their number is increasing every year, as the result of the rapid growth and high favor of industrial schools, where the trades are taught. A very great deal should be expected from this source, as a Negro contractor stands very nearly on as good footing as a white one in the bidding, when he has established a reputation for reliability. The facts obtained in every Southern city bear out this view of the matter. The individual black man has a fighting chance for success in the skilled trades ”

“ As a matter of fact, the people are trading with each other, all day long and with the white travellers whenever they have the opportunity. They sell food, lances, native knives and all kinds of curiosities to those who desire them and are at perfect liberty to barter away all their property if they wish to do so. They may not of course enter the territories of the State or Private Companies and take the ivory or rubber, any more than the people in Europe may walk on to private land and gather the corn or fruit from it for their own use or profit. ”

“ Many retail outlets, shops, hairdressing salons; hustle and bustle reigns everywhere, as if you are in the middle of a large, anthill. White people do not walk the streets — they are afraid, — moving only in cars; by the way, there are few of them: the black population predominates. There are beggars of European appearance — I've seen them twice.
Exchange currency for local money — rand — is possible only with great losses, because should paid commission, be it a private or state exchange office. Residents of neighboring countries have got used to making an exchange in Indian shops. ”

“ It is the policy of the English ship-masters on the coast to represent the Americans as engaged in the slave-trade; for if, by such accusations, they can induce British or American men-of-war to detain and examine the fair trader, they thus rid themselves of troublesome rivals.
The natives are generally favorable to the slave-trade. It brings them many comforts and luxuries, which the legitimate trade does not supply. Their argument is, that "if a man goes into the Bush and buys camwood, he must pay another to bring it to the beach. ”

“ My idea of the adjustment in the Mississippi Valley, seeing what I can make from the mercantile portion of my business, is that it is simply my revenue that I get from the rent of my land as an investment on my capital; and whenever a negro can get his own merchant in New Orleans—a number of them have very good factors in New Orleans and ship their cotton direct—I encourage it. When one negro wants to help out another, I give him the privilege of doing it and encourage it. ”

“ The white man offers his most tempting articles of merchandise to the negro, as a price for the flesh and blood of his enemy; and if we, with all our boasted knowledge and religion, are seduced by money to do such grievous wrong to those who have never offended us, what can we expect of men just emerging from the limited wants of savage life, too uncivilized to have formed any habits of steady industry, yet earnestly coveting the productions they know not how to earn! ”

“ In every naked negro of those thousands, they saw a future customer. Meantime, they saw further that the slave-trade, by keeping in barbarism the whole coast of eastern Africa, deprives them of countries and nations of customers, if once freedom and civility and European manners could get a foothold there. But the trade could not be abolished whilst this hungry West Indian market, with an appetite like the grave, cried, ‘More, more, bring me a hundred a day;’ they could not expect any mitigation in the madness of the poor African war-chiefs. ”

“ But, secondly, it is not clear, that we should have either less money or trade, (only less of that detestable trade of man-stealing) if there was not a negro in all our Islands, or in all English America. It is demonstrable, white men, inured to it by degrees can work as well as them: and they would do it, were negroes out of the way, and proper encouragement given them. However, thirdly, I come back to the same point: better no trade, than trade procured by villany. It is far better to have no wealth, than to gain wealth at the expence of virtue. ”

“ That their wants are neither few nor trifling may be satisfactorily ascertained, from the fact that the sum of 96,000 pounds sterling, the produce of the slave-trade from the ports of Bérbera, Zeyla, Tajúra, and Massowah, is only one item of the total amount annually invested in various foreign goods and manufactures, which are readily disposed of even at the present price of the monopolist; who being generally a trader of very limited capital, may be concluded to drive an extremely hard bargain for his luxurious wares. ”

“ When called upon to represent the sentiment of my Church I feel it to be pardonable for daring to speak my sentiments touching the vital issues of to-day. If low tariff or free trade on certain commodities is to the best interest of the white South, it certainly [Pg 185] is to the best interest of the black South, who produce the raw material, manufacture nothing, but are all-round consumers; and if free silver, as it is now termed, is to the best interest of the laboring classes of this country, especially of the South and West, it must be doubly so to the Negro. ”

“ Since emancipation, they have been unshackling them selves from white domination in matters of trade; extending their connections, and becoming every day more and more independent. They have formed credits with commercial houses abroad, and now import directly for themselves, at wholesale prices, what they were formerly obliged to receive from white importers, or rather speculators, at such prices as they, in their tender mercies, saw fit to impose. ”

“ Where trade, expressed in a large export of produce which has been paid for in goods and cash, is not present as a factor in the relationship between white man and black, the possession of land is just as essential to the native population, although the problem takes on a different complexion. ”

“ They are as much respected in business transactions, and their mercantile talents, their acquaintance with the generalities and details of commerce, and sagacity and judgment in making bargains, are as highly esteemed by the white merchants, as though they wore an European hue. The commercial room is open to them, where they resort unrestrainedly to ascertain the news; and a visitor may not unfrequently see sitting together at a table of newspapers, or conversing together in the parlance of trade, persons as dissimilar in complexion as white and black can make them. ”

“ Paris, the capital of such kings and the scene of such debauchery, became the source and headquarters of the world-wide white slave trade of the present time. With the spread of [Pg 26] legitimate commerce to every part of the world, the long experienced traders in women sought a world-wide market for girls. There is not a civilized country which has not been exploited by the traders, alike as a hunting ground for victims and as a market in which to sell them. ”

“ Here, provisions, guns, powder, cotton cloths, and other goods, suitable for the purchase or subsistence of slaves, are sold at good prices for cash, or bills of exchange. The bills of Pedro Blanco, the notorious slave-dealer at Gallinas, on an eminent Spanish house in New York, and another in London, are taken as readily as cash. A large number of the vessels engaged in the African trade, whether English or American, do a considerable part of their business either with the slavers, or with natives settled at the slave-marts, and who, from their connection with the trade, have plenty of money. ”