better, and bidding fair to recover. He entertained me with an account of
the Darien society, its aristocracies and democracies, its little
grandeurs and smaller pettinesses, its circles higher and lower, its
social jealousies, fine invisible lines of demarcation, imperceptible
shades of different respectability, and delicate divisions of genteel,
genteeler, genteelest. 'For me,' added the worthy doctor, 'I cannot well
enter into the spirit of these nice distinctions; it suits neither my
taste nor my interest, and my house is, perhaps, the only one in Darien,
where you would find all these opposite and contending elements
combined.' The doctor is connected with the aristocracy of the place, and,
like a wise man, remembers, notwithstanding, that those who are not, are
quite as liable to be ill, and call in medical assistance, as those who
are. He is a shrewd, intelligent man, with an excellent knowledge of his
profession, much kindness of heart, and apparent cheerful good temper. I
have already severely tried the latter, by the unequivocal expression of
my opinions on the subject of slavery, and, though I perceived that it
required all his self-command to listen with anything like patience to my
highly incendiary and inflammatory doctrines, he yet did so, and though he
was, I have no doubt, perfectly horror-stricken at the discovery, lost
nothing of his courtesy or good-humour. By the by, I must tell you, that
at an early period of the conversation, upon my saying, 'I put all other
considerations out of the question, and first propose to you the injustice
of the system alone,' 'Oh!' replied my friend, the Doctor, 'if you put it
upon that ground, you _stump_ the question at once; I have nothing to say
to that whatever, but,' and then followed the usual train of
pleadings--happiness, tenderness, care, indulgence, &c., &c., &c.--all the
substitutes that may or may not be put in the place of _justice_, and
which these slaveholders attempt to persuade others, and perhaps
themselves, effectually supply its want. After church hours the people
came back from Darien. They are only permitted to go to Darien to church
once a month. On the intermediate Sundays they assemble in the house of
London, Mr. ----'s head cooper, an excellent and pious man, who, Heaven
alone knows how, has obtained some little knowledge of reading, and who
reads prayers and the Bible to his fellow slaves, and addresses them with
extemporaneous exhortations. I have the greatest desire to attend one of
these religious meetings, but fear to put the people under any, the
slightest restraint. However, I shall see, by and by, how they feel about
it themselves.
You have heard, of course, many and contradictory statements as to the
degree of religious instruction afforded to the negroes of the South, and
their opportunities of worship, &c. Until the late abolition movement, the
spiritual interests of the slaves were about as little regarded as their
physical necessities. The outcry which has been raised with threefold
force within the last few years against the whole system, has induced its
upholders and defenders to adopt, as measures of personal extenuation,
some appearance of religious instruction (such as it is), and some
pretence at physical indulgences (such as they are), bestowed apparently
voluntarily upon their dependants. At Darien, a church is appropriated to
the especial use of the slaves, who are almost all of them Baptists here;
and a gentleman officiates in it (of course white), who, I understand, is
very zealous in the cause of their spiritual well-being. He, like most
Southern men, clergy or others, jump the present life in their charities
to the slaves, and go on to furnish them with all requisite conveniences
for the next. There were a short time ago two free black preachers in this
neighbourhood, but they have lately been ejected from the place. I could
not clearly learn, but one may possibly imagine, upon what grounds.
I do not think that a residence on a slave plantation is likely to be
peculiarly advantageous to a child like my eldest. I was observing her
to-day among her swarthy worshippers, for they follow her as such, and
saw, with dismay, the universal eagerness with which they sprang to obey
her little gestures of command. She said something about a swing, and in
less than five minutes head-man Frank had erected it for her, and a
dozen young slaves were ready to swing little 'missis.' ----, think of
learning to rule despotically your fellow creatures before the first
lesson of self-government has been well spelt over! It makes me tremble;
but I shall find a remedy, or remove myself and the child from this
misery and ruin.
You cannot conceive anything more grotesque than the Sunday trim of the
poor people; their ideality, as Mr. Combe would say, being, I should
think, twice as big as any rational bump in their head. Their Sabbath
toilet really presents the most ludicrous combination of incongruities
that you can conceive--frills, flounces, ribbands, combs stuck in their
woolly heads, as if they held up any portion of the stiff and ungovernable
hair, filthy finery, every colour in the rainbow, and the deepest possible
shades blended in fierce companionship round one dusky visage, head
handkerchiefs, that put one's very eyes out from a mile off, chintzes with
sprawling patterns, that might be seen if the clouds were printed with
them--beads, bugles, flaring sashes, and above all, little fanciful
aprons, which finish these incongruous toilets with a sort of airy grace,
which I assure you is perfectly indescribable. One young man, the eldest
son and heir of our washerwoman Hannah, came to pay his respects to me in
a magnificent black satin waistcoat, shirt gills which absolutely
engulphed his black visage, and neither shoes nor stockings on his feet.
Among our visitors from St. Simons to-day was Hannah's mother (it seems to
me that there is not a girl of sixteen on the plantations but has
children, nor a woman of thirty but has grandchildren). Old House Molly,
as she is called, from the circumstance of her having been one of the
slaves employed in domestic offices during Major ----'s residence on the
island, is one of the oldest and most respected slaves on the estate, and
was introduced to me by Mr. ---- with especial marks of attention and
regard; she absolutely embraced him, and seemed unable sufficiently to
express her ecstacy at seeing him again. Her dress, like that of her
daughter, and all the servants who have at any time been employed about
the family, bore witness to a far more improved taste than the half savage
adornment of the other poor blacks, and upon my observing to her how
agreeable her neat and cleanly appearance was to me, she replied, that her
old master (Major ----) was extremely particular in this respect, and that
in his time all the house servants were obliged to be very nice and
careful about their persons.
She named to me all her children, an immense tribe; and, by the by, E----,
it has occurred to me that whereas the increase of this ill-fated race is
frequently adduced as a proof of their good treatment and well being, it
really and truly is no such thing, and springs from quite other causes
than the peace and plenty which a rapidly increasing population are
supposed to indicate. If you will reflect for a moment upon the overgrown
families of the half-starved Irish peasantry and English manufacturers,
you will agree with me that these prolific shoots by no means necessarily
spring from a rich or healthy soil. Peace and plenty are certainly causes
of human increase, and so is recklessness; and this, I take it, is the
impulse in the instance of the English manufacturer, the Irish peasant,
and the negro slave. Indeed here it is more than recklessness, for there
are certain indirect premiums held out to obey the early commandment of
replenishing the earth, which do not fail to have their full effect. In
the first place, none of the cares, those noble cares, that holy
thoughtfulness which lifts the human above the brute parent, are ever
incurred here by either father or mother. The relation indeed resembles,
as far as circumstances can possibly make it do so, the short-lived
connection between the animal and its young. The father, having neither
authority, power, responsibility, or charge in his children, is of course,
as among brutes, the least attached to his offspring; the mother, by the
natural law which renders the infant dependent on her for its first year's
nourishment, is more so; but as neither of them is bound to educate or to
support their children, all the unspeakable tenderness and solemnity, all
the rational, and all the spiritual grace and glory of the connection is
lost, and it becomes mere breeding, bearing, suckling, and there an end.
But it is not only the absence of the conditions which God has affixed to
the relation, which tends to encourage the reckless increase of the race;
they enjoy, by means of numerous children, certain positive advantages. In
the first place, every woman who is pregnant, as soon as she chooses to
make the fact known to the overseer, is relieved of a certain portion of
her work in the field, which lightening of labour continues, of course, as
long as she is so burthened. On the birth of a child certain additions of
clothing and an additional weekly ration are bestowed on the family; and
these matters, small as they may seem, act as powerful inducements to
creatures who have none of the restraining influences actuating them
which belong to the parental relation among all other people, whether
civilised or savage. Moreover, they have all of them a most distinct and
perfect knowledge of their value to their owners as property; and a woman
thinks, and not much amiss, that the more frequently she adds to the
number of her master's live stock by bringing new slaves into the world,
the more claims she will have upon his consideration and goodwill. This
was perfectly evident to me from the meritorious air with which the women
always made haste to inform me of the number of children they had borne,
and the frequent occasions on which the older slaves would direct my
attention to their children, exclaiming, 'Look, missis! little niggers for
you and massa, plenty little niggers for you and little missis!' A very
agreeable apostrophe to me indeed, as you will believe.
I have let this letter lie for a day or two, dear, E---- from press of
more immediate avocations. I have nothing very particular to add to it. On
Monday evening I rowed over to Darien with Mr. ---- to fetch over the
doctor, who was coming to visit some of our people. As I sat waiting in
the boat for the return of the gentlemen, the sun went down, or rather
seemed to dissolve bodily into the glowing clouds, which appeared but a
fusion of the great orb of light; the stars twinkled out in the
rose-coloured sky, and the evening air, as it fanned the earth to sleep,
was as soft as a summer's evening breeze in the north. A sort of dreamy
stillness seemed creeping over the world and into my spirit, as the canoe
just tilted against the steps that led to the wharf, raised by the scarce
perceptible heaving of the water. A melancholy, monotonous boat-horn
sounded from a distance up the stream, and presently, floating slowly down
with the current, huge, shapeless, black relieved against the sky, came
one of those rough barges piled with cotton, called, hereabouts, Ocone
boxes. The vessel itself is really nothing but a monstrous square box,
made of rough planks, put together in the roughest manner possible to
attain the necessary object of keeping the cotton dry. Upon this great
tray are piled the swollen apoplectic looking cotton bags, to the height
of ten, twelve, and fourteen feet. This huge water-waggon floats lazily
down the river, from the upper country to Darien. They are flat bottomed,
and, of course, draw little water. The stream from whence they are named
is an up country river, which, by its junction with the Ocmulgee, forms
the Altamaha. Here at least, you perceive the Indian names remain, and
long may they do so, for they seem to me to become the very character of
the streams and mountains they indicate, and are indeed significant to the
learned in savage tongues, which is more than can be said of such titles
as Jones's Creek, Onion Creek, &c. These Ocone boxes are broken up at
Darien, where the cotton is shipped either for the Savannah, Charleston
or Liverpool markets, and the timber, of which they are constructed,
sold.
We rowed the doctor over to see some of his patients on the island, and
before his departure a most animated discussion took place upon the
subject of the President of the United States, his talents,
qualifications, opinions, above all, his views with regard to the slave
system. Mr. ----, who you know is no abolitionist, and is a very devoted
Van Buren man, maintained with great warmth the President's
straight-forwardness, and his evident and expressed intention of
protecting the rights of the South. The doctor, on the other hand, quoted
a certain speech of the President's, upon the question of abolishing
slavery in the district of Columbia, which his fears interpreted into a
mere evasion of the matter, and an indication that, at some future period,
he (Mr. Van Buren), might take a different view of the subject. I confess,
for my own part, that if the doctor quoted the speech right, and if the
President is not an honest man, and if I were a Southern slave holder, I
should not feel altogether secure of Mr. Van Buren's present opinions or
future conduct upon this subject. These three _ifs_, however, are material
points of consideration. Our friend the doctor inclined vehemently to Mr.
Clay, as one on whom the slave holders could depend. Georgia, however, as
a state, is perhaps the most democratic in the Union; though here, as well
as in other places, that you and I know of, a certain class, calling
themselves the first, and honestly believing themselves the best, set
their faces against the modern fashioned republicanism, professing, and, I
have no doubt, with great sincerity, that their ideas of democracy are
altogether of a different kind.
I went again to-day to the Infirmary, and was happy to perceive that there
really was an evident desire to conform to my instructions, and keep the
place in a better condition than formerly. Among the sick I found a poor
woman suffering dreadfully from the ear-ache. She had done nothing to
alleviate her pain but apply some leaves, of what tree or plant I could
not ascertain, and tie up her head in a variety of dirty cloths, till it
was as large as her whole body. I removed all these, and found one side of
her face and neck very much swollen, but so begrimed with filth that it
was really no very agreeable task to examine it. The first process, of
course, was washing, which, however, appeared to her so very unusual an
operation, that I had to perform it for her myself. Sweet oil and
laudanum, and raw cotton, being then applied to her ear and neck, she
professed herself much relieved, but I believe in my heart that the warm
water sponging had done her more good than anything else. I was sorry not
to ascertain what leaves she had applied to her ear. These simple remedies
resorted to by savages, and people as ignorant, are generally approved by
experience, and sometimes condescendingly adopted by science. I remember
once, when Mr. ---- was suffering from a severe attack of inflammatory
rheumatism, Doctor C---- desired him to bind round his knee the leaves of
the tulip-tree--poplar, I believe you call it--saying that he had learnt
that remedy from the negroes in Virginia, and found it a most effectual
one. My next agreeable office in the Infirmary this morning was
superintending the washing of two little babies, whose mothers were
nursing them with quite as much ignorance as zeal. Having ordered a large
tub of water, I desired Rose to undress the little creatures and give them
a warm bath; the mothers looked on in unutterable dismay, and one of them,
just as her child was going to be put into the tub, threw into it all the
clothes she had just taken off it, as she said, to break the unusual shock
of the warm water. I immediately rescued them, not but what they were
quite as much in want of washing as the baby, but it appeared, upon
enquiry, that the woman had none others to dress the child in, when it
should have taken its bath; they were immediately wrung and hung by the
fire to dry, and the poor little patients having undergone this novel
operation were taken out and given to their mothers. Anything, however,
much more helpless and inefficient than these poor ignorant creatures you
cannot conceive; they actually seemed incapable of drying or dressing
their own babies, and I had to finish their toilet myself. As it is only a
very few years since the most absurd and disgusting customs have become
exploded among ourselves, you will not, of course, wonder that these poor
people pin up the lower part of their infants, bodies, legs and all, in
red flannel as soon as they are born, and keep them in the selfsame
envelope till it literally falls off.
In the next room I found a woman lying on the floor in a fit of epilepsy,
barking most violently. She seemed to excite no particular attention or
compassion; the women said she was subject to these fits, and took little
or no notice of her, as she lay barking like some enraged animal on the
ground. Again I stood in profound ignorance, sickening with the sight of
suffering, which I knew not how to alleviate, and which seemed to excite
no commiseration, merely from the sad fact of its frequent occurrence.
Returning to the house, I passed up the 'street.' It was between eleven
o'clock and noon, and the people were taking their first meal in the day.
By the by, E----, how do you think Berkshire county farmers would relish
labouring hard all day upon _two meals_ of Indian corn or hominy? Such is
the regulation on this plantation, however, and I beg you to bear in mind
that the negroes on Mr. ----'s estate, are generally considered well off.
They go to the fields at daybreak, carrying with them their allowance of
food for the day, which towards noon, _and not till then_, they eat,
cooking it over a fire, which they kindle as best they can, where they are
working. Their second meal in the day is at night, after their labour is
over, having worked, at the _very least_, six hours without intermission
of rest or refreshment since their noon-day meal (properly so called, for
'tis meal, and nothing else). Those that I passed to-day, sitting on their
doorsteps, or on the ground round them eating, were the people employed at
the mill and threshing-floor. As these are near to the settlement, they
had time to get their food from the cook-shop. Chairs, tables, plates,
knives, forks, they had none; they sat, as I before said, on the earth or
doorsteps, and ate either out of their little cedar tubs, or an iron pot,
some few with broken iron spoons, more with pieces of wood, and all the
children with their fingers. A more complete sample of savage feeding, I
never beheld. At one of the doors I saw three young girls standing, who
might be between sixteen and seventeen years old; they had evidently done
eatings and were rudely playing and romping with each other, laughing and
shouting like wild things. I went into the house, and such another
spectacle of filthy disorder I never beheld. I then addressed the girls
most solemnly, showing them that they were wasting in idle riot the time
in which they might be rendering their abode decent, and told them that it
was a shame for any woman to live in so dirty a place, and so beastly a
condition. They said they had seen buckree (white) women's houses just as
dirty, and they could not be expected to be cleaner than white women. I
then told them that the only difference between themselves and buckree
women was, that the latter were generally better informed, and, for that
reason alone, it was more disgraceful to them to be disorderly and dirty.
They seemed to listen to me attentively, and one of them exclaimed, with
great satisfaction, that they saw I made no difference between them and
white girls, and that they never had been so treated before. I do not know
anything which strikes me as a more melancholy illustration of the
degradation of these people, than the animal nature of their recreations
in their short seasons of respite from labour. You see them, boys and
girls, from the youngest age to seventeen and eighteen, rolling, tumbling,
kicking, and wallowing in the dust, regardless alike of decency, and
incapable of any more rational amusement; or, lolling, with half-closed
eyes, like so many cats and dogs, against a wall, or upon a bank in the
sun, dozing away their short leisure hour, until called to resume their
labours in the field or the mill. After this description of the meals of
our labourers, you will, perhaps, be curious to know how it fares with our
house servants in this respect. Precisely in the same manner, as far as
regards allowance, with the exception of what is left from our table, but,
if possible, with even less comfort, in one respect, inasmuch as no time
whatever is set apart for their meals, which they snatch at any hour, and
in any way that they can--generally, however, standing, or squatting on
their hams round the kitchen fire. They have no sleeping-rooms in the
house, but when their work is over, retire, like the rest, to their
hovels, the discomfort of which has to them all the addition of comparison
with our mode of living. Now, in all establishments whatever, of course
some disparity exists between the comforts of the drawing-room and best
bed-rooms, and the servant's hall and attics, but here it is no longer a
matter of degree. The young woman who performs the office of lady's-maid,
and the lads who wait upon us at table, have neither table to feed at nor
chair to sit down upon themselves. The boys sleep at night on the hearth
by the kitchen fire, and the women upon a rough board bedstead, strewed
with a little tree moss. All this shows how very torpid the sense of
justice is apt to lie in the breasts of those who have it not awakened by
the peremptory demands of others.