d, as a poet and the fragments of his
work that have come down to us show that he was at any rate a fair
literary craftsman. Of the sort of man he was personally, we have not
the material for a fair judgment, for we are practically shut up to
surveying the man through the very colored glass that the historian
Long inserts in the loophole of observation he has turned on Williams.
Long, who published his History of Jamaica in 1774, was of the planter
class, and his prejudice on such a matter was probably so complete
that he was not even conscious that prejudice existed. He says of
Williams: "In regard to the general character of the man, he was
haughty, opinionated, looked down with sovereign contempt on his
fellow blacks, entertained the highest opinion of his own knowledge,
treated his parents with much disdain, and behaved towards his own
children and slaves with a severity bordering on cruelty. He was fond
of having great deference paid to him, and exacted it with the utmost
degree from the negroes about him. He affected a singularity of dress
and a particularly grave cast of countenance, to impart an idea of his
wisdom and learning; and to second this view, he wore in common a huge
wig, which made a very venerable figure."[222] The influence of
prejudice on this picture is easily to be detected. There is not a
single line of sympathy through the whole presentation, and it is
something more than probable that there is actual misrepresentation of
facts. Long would repeat what was current in his own circle, without
feeling himself at all bound to investigate the assertions before
setting them down for future generations to read.[223]

That Williams was set in a most difficult position is obvious. It was
one that could only be creditably filled by one highly and
exceptionally gifted, both in intellect and spirit. Still more
difficult was it so to fill that position that he would appear before
an age of wider and sweeter altruistic principles without disfavor in
its eyes. Long credits him with the saying: "Show me a negro, and I
show you a thief";[224] and Gardner, who enters in his behalf a
defence that is in many ways effective, merely says regarding this
accusation: "The race to which he belonged was then almost universally
despised, and the temptation to curry favor with the whites by
denouncing the negroes was too great for him to resist."[225] But it
seems to me that something more deserves to be said on the subject