came unequivocally racist. The bars to empathy were potent, for the set-
tlers were ignorant of the history, the language, the social institutions, and
the moral norms of the Africans around them; yet they took Africans into
their service, only to become disappointed with their performance as la-
borers. The dominant
impressions settlers had of Africans were con-
sciousness of difference, fear of numbers, and chagrin at instrumental
deficiencies. They regarded the nonracial clause in the 1843 annexation
agreement as "utterly inapplicable," because Natal was "a white settle-
ment," and its Africans were "foreigners."64
In 1856, following the 1853 precedent in the Cape Colony, the British
government provided Natal with a constitution under which appointed
officials controlled the executive but were a minority in the legislature,
where the majority was elected by the tiny white population. Not surpris-
ingly,the elected members used their powers to foster the sectional interests
of their constituents. They passed laws to ensure that Africans should not
acquire the franchise, and egged on by a vigorous press, they put continu-
ous pressure on the senior officialsboth to ensure that the requisite number
of Africans turned out to work for Whites and to block the allocation of