Norfolk is the place above all others, where the
“old-Verginny-never-tire” colored people of the olden time may be found
in their purity. Here nearly everybody lives out of doors in the warm
weather. This is not confined to the blacks. On the sidewalks, in front
of the best hotels, under the awnings at store-doors, on the door-sills
of private houses, and on the curbstones in the streets, may be seen
people of all classes. But the blacks especially give the inside of the
house a wide berth in the summer.
I went to the market, for I always like to visit the markets on
Saturday, for there you see “life among the lowly,” as you see it
nowhere else. Colored men and women have a respectable number of stalls
in the Norfolk market, the management of which does them great credit.
But the costermongers, or street-venders, are the men of music. “Here’s
yer nice vegables--green corn, butter beans, taters, Irish taters, new,
jess bin digged; come an’ get ’em while dey is fresh. Now’s yer time;
squash, Calafony quash, bess in de worl’; come an’ git ’em now; it’ll
be Sunday termorrer, an’ I’ll be gone to church. Big fat Mexican peas,
marrer fat squash, Protestant squash, good Catholic vegables of all
kinds.”
Now’s yer time to git snap-beans,
Okra, tomatoes, an’ taters gwine by;
Don’t be foolish virgins;
Hab de dinner ready
When de master he comes home,
Snap-beans gwine by.
Just then the vender broke forth in a most musical voice:
Oh! Hannah, boil dat cabbage down,
Hannah, boil ’em down,
And turn dem buckwheats round and round,
Hannah, boil ’em down.
It’s almost time to blow de horn,
Hannah, boil ’em down,
To call de boys dat hoe de corn,
Hannah, boil ’em down.
Hannah, boll ’em down,
De cabbage just pulled out de ground,
Boil ’em in de pot,
And make him smoking hot.
* * * * *
Some like de cabbage made in krout,
Hannah, boil ’em down,
Dey eat so much dey get de gout,
Hannah, boil ’em down,
Dey chops ’em up and let dem spoil,
Hannah, boil ’em down;
I’d rather hab my cabbage boiled,
Hannah, boil ’em down.
Some say dat possum’s in de pan,
Hannah, boil ’em down,
Am de sweetest meat in all de land,
Hannah, boil ’em down;
But dar is dat ole cabbage head,
Hannah, boil ’em down,
I’ll prize it, children, till I’s dead,
Hannah, boil ’em down.
This song, given in his inimitable manner, drew the women to the
windows, and the crowd around the vegetable man in the street, and he
soon disposed of the contents of his cart. Other venders who “toted”
their commodities about in baskets on their heads, took advantage of
the musical man’s company to sell their own goods. A woman with some
really fine strawberries, put forth her claims in a very interesting
song; the interest, however, centered more upon the manner than the
matter:--
“I live fore miles out of town,
I am gwine to glory.
My strawberries are sweet an’ soun’,
I am gwine to glory.
I fotch ’em fore miles on my head,
I am gwine to glory.
My chile is sick, an’ husban’ dead,
I am gwine to glory.
Now’s de time to get ’em cheap,
I am gwine to glory.
Eat ’em wid yer bread an’ meat,
I am gwine to glory.
Come sinner get down on your knees,
I am gwine to glory.
Eat dees strawberries when you please,
I am gwine to glory.”
Upon the whole, the colored man of Virginia is a very favorable
physical specimen of his race; and he has peculiarly fine, urbane
manners. A stranger judging from the surface of life here, would
undoubtedly say that that they were a happy, well-to-do people.
Perhaps, also, he might say: “Ah, I see. The negro is the same
everywhere--a hewer of wood, a peddler of vegetables, a wearer of the
waiter’s white apron. Freedom has not altered his status.”
Such a judgment would be a very hasty one. Nations are not educated
in twenty years. There are certain white men who naturally gravitate
also to these positions; and we must remember that it is only the
present generation of negroes who have been able to appropriate any
share of the nobler blessings of freedom. But the colored boys and
girls of Virginia are to-day vastly different from what the colored
boys and girls of fifteen or twenty years ago were. The advancement and
improvement is so great that it is not unreasonable to predict from it
a very satisfactory future.
The negro population here are greatly in the majority, and formerly
sent a member of their own color to the State Senate, but through
bribery and ballot-box stuffing, a white Senator is now in Richmond.
One negro here at a late election sold his vote for a barrel of sugar.
After he had voted and taken his sugar home, he found it to be a barrel
of sand. I learn that his neighbors turned the laugh upon him, and made
him treat the whole company, which cost him five dollars.
I would not have it supposed from what I have said about the general
condition of the blacks in Virginia that there are none of a higher
grade. Far from it, for some of the best mechanics in the State are
colored men. In Richmond and Petersburg they have stores and carry on
considerable trade, both with the whites and their own race. They are
doing a great deal for education; many send their sons and daughters
North and West for better advantages; and they are building some of the
finest churches in this State. The Second Baptist Church here pulled
down a comparatively new and fine structure, last year, to replace it
with a more splendid place of worship, simply because a rival church of
the same denomination had surpassed them. I viewed the new edifice, and
feel confident it will compare favorably with any church on the Back
Bay, Boston.
The new building will seat three thousand persons, and will cost,
exclusive of the ground, one hundred thousand dollars, all the brick
and wood work of which is being done by colored men.