Accursed Race

Elizabeth Gaskell

Description

Though she gained acclaim as a novelist whom many critics and fans likened to another Victorian literary luminary, Charles Dickens, Elizabeth Gaskell was also deeply interested in social causes, about which she often penned compelling nonfiction pieces. This essay paints a heart-rending portrait of the plight of the Cagots, a European clan who suffered severe persecution for hundreds of years.

Sujets

• Sociologie, société et politique
• Anthropology

Informations

• Publié par: The Floating Press
• Date de parution: 01 avril 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781776599851
• Langue: English

Extrait

AN ACCURSED RACE
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ELIZABETH GASKELL
 
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An Accursed Race First published in 1855 Epub ISBN 978-1-77659-985-1 Also available: PDF ISBN 978-1-77659-986-8 © 2014 The Floating Press and its licensors. All rights reserved. While every effort has been used to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the information contained in The Floating Press edition of this book, The Floating Press does not assume liability or responsibility for any errors or omissions in this book. The Floating Press does not accept responsibility for loss suffered as a result of reliance upon the accuracy or currency of information contained in this book. Do not use while operating a motor vehicle or heavy equipment. Many suitcases look alike. Visit www.thefloatingpress.com
An Accursed Race
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We have our prejudices in England. Or, if that assertion offends any ofmy readers, I will modify it: we have had our prejudices in England. Wehave tortured Jews; we have burnt Catholics and Protestants, to saynothing of a few witches and wizards. We have satirized Puritans, and wehave dressed-up Guys. But, after all, I do not think we have been so badas our Continental friends. To be sure, our insular position has kept usfree, to a certain degree, from the inroads of alien races; who, drivenfrom one land of refuge, steal into another equally unwilling to receivethem; and where, for long centuries, their presence is barely endured,and no pains is taken to conceal the repugnance which the natives of"pure blood" experience towards them.
There yet remains a remnant of the miserable people called Cagots in thevalleys of the Pyrenees; in the Landes near Bourdeaux; and, stretching upon the west side of France, their numbers become larger in LowerBrittany. Even now, the origin of these families is a word of shame tothem among their neighbours; although they are protected by the law,which confirmed them in the equal rights of citizens about the end of thelast century. Before then they had lived, for hundreds of years,isolated from all those who boasted of pure blood, and they had been, allthis time, oppressed by cruel local edicts. They were truly what theywere popularly called, The Accursed Race.
All distinct traces of their origin are lost. Even at the close of thatperiod which we call the Middle Ages, this was a problem which no onecould solve; and as the traces, which even then were faint and uncertain,have vanished away one by one, it is a complete mystery at the presentday. Why they were accursed in the first instance, why isolated fromtheir kind, no one knows. From the earliest accounts of their state thatare yet remaining to us, it seems that the names which they gave eachother were ignored by the population they lived amongst, who spoke ofthem as Crestiaa, or Cagots, just as we speak of animals by their genericnames. Their houses or huts were always placed at some distance out ofthe villages of the country-folk, who unwillingly called in the servicesof the Cagots as carpenters, or tilers, or slaters—trades which seemedappropriated by this unfortunate race—who were forbidden to occupy land,or to bear arms, the usual occupations of those times. They had somesmall right of pasturage on the common lands, and in the forests: but thenumber of their cattle and live-stock was strictly limited by theearliest laws relating to the Cagots.