"Negroes in Paris" (1864)

Source: The Friend. Honolulu: August 4, 1864. 

Negroes in Paris.—In Paris we have seen negroes at balls, and Southern ladies dancing with them, apparently cured of all repulsion toward their color and race. Among Parisians there is no prejudice such as exists among us. French and colored servants in the same family eat and sleep together on a perfect equality, and we see every day a young colored girl and a pretty blonde, walking arm-in-arm, under the same parasol, chatting and laughing, exactly as two blondes with us. In a French family of pride and wealth we have dined often with a colored lady, whose hue was jet black. At first, we confess, it spoiled our appetite, but to have acknowledged this would have subjected us to ridicule and contempt. It would be something they could not understand " why we could not as willingly dine with a black person as a white." But here they are very few, and have never been seen in chains. There is no class of negroes so degraded as their own peasantry. — Cor. of California Paper.