RACES AND THE WAR
BY JOSEPHINE E. BUTLER



NATIVE RACES AND THE WAR,

BY

JOSEPHINE E. BUTLER.

LONDON: GAY & BIRD.

NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNE: MAWSON, SWAN, & MORGAN.

1900.




DEDICATED TO MY CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN.




I.

APOLOGY FOR "YET ANOTHER BOOK" ON THE SOUTH AFRICAN QUESTION.
FUTURE PEACE MUST BE BASED ON JUSTICE,--TO COLOURED AS WELL AS
WHITE MEN. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LEGALIZED SLAVERY AND THE SUBJECTION
OF NATIVES BY INDIVIDUALS. THE TRANSVAAL IN 1877: ITS BANKRUPTCY:
ITS ANNEXATION BY GREAT BRITAIN: ITS LIBERATION FROM GREAT BRITAIN
IN 1881. CONVENTION OF 1881 SIGNED AT PRETORIA. BRITISH
COMMISSIONERS' AUDIENCE WITH 300 NATIVE CHIEFS. SPEECHES AND
SORROWFUL PROTESTS OF THE CHIEFS. ROYAL COMMISSION APPOINTED TO
TAKE EVIDENCE. EVIDENCE OF NATIVES AND OTHERS CONCERNING SLAVERY IN
THE TRANSVAAL. APPEAL OF THE CHRISTIAN KING KHAMA. LETTER OF
M'PLAANK, NEPHEW OF CETEWAYO. PREVALENCE OF CONTEMPT FOR THE NATIVE
RACES. SYMPATHY OF A NATIVE CHIEF WITH THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST.


In the midst of the manifold utterances and discussions on the burning
question of to-day,--the War in South Africa,--there is one side of the
subject which, it seems to me, has not as yet been considered with the
seriousness which it deserves,--and that is the question of Slavery, and
of the treatment of the native races of South Africa. Though this
question has not yet in England or on the Continent been cited as one of
the direct causes of the war, I am convinced,--as are many others,--that
it lies very near to the heart of the present trouble.

The object of this paper is simply to bring witnesses together who will
testify to the past and present condition of the native races under
British, Dutch, and Transvaal rule. These witnesses shall not be all of
one nation; they shall come from different countries, and among them
there shall be representatives of the native peoples themselves. I shall
add little of my own to the testimony of these witnesses. But I will
say, in advance, that what I desire to make plain for some sincere
persons who are perplexed, is this,--that where a Government has
established by Law the principle of the complete and final abolition of
Slavery, and made its practice illegal for all time,--as our British
Government has done,--there is hope for the native races;--there is
always hope that, by an appeal to the law and to British authority, any
and every wrong done to the natives, which approaches to or threatens
the reintroduction of slavery, shall be redressed. The Abolition of
Slavery, enacted by our Government in 1834, was the proclamation of a
great principle, strong and clear, a straight line by which every
enactment dealing with the question, and every act of individuals, or
groups of individuals, bearing on the liberty of the natives can be
measured, and any deviation from that straight line of principle can be
exactly estimated and judged.

When we speak of injustice done to the natives by the South African
Republics, we are apt to be met with the reproach that the English have
also been guilty of cruelty to native races. This is unhappily true, and
shall not be disguised in the following pages;--but mark this,--that it
is true of certain individuals bearing the English name, true of groups
of individuals, of certain adventurers and speculators. But this fact
does not touch the far more important and enduring fact that _wherever
British rule is established, slavery is abolished, and illegal_.

This fact is the ground of the hope for the future of the Missionaries
of our own country, and of other European countries, as well as of the
poor natives themselves, so far as they have come to understand the
matter; and in several instances they have shown that they do understand
it, and appreciate it keenly.

Those English persons, or groups of persons, who have denied to the
native