people was at all improved since I had been last there; but nothing had
been done. I suppose Mr. G---- is waiting for Mr. ---- to come down in
order to speak to him about it. I found some miserable new cases of women
disabled by hard work. One poor thing, called Priscilla, had come out of
the fields to-day scarcely able to crawl; she has been losing blood for a
whole fortnight without intermission, and, until to-day, was labouring in
the fields. Leah, another new face since I visited the hospital last, is
lying quite helpless from exhaustion; she is advanced in her pregnancy,
and doing task work in the fields at the same time. What piteous
existences to be sure! I do wonder, as I walk among them, well fed, well
clothed, young, strong, idle, doing nothing but ride and drive about all
day, a woman, a creature like themselves, who have borne children too,
what sort of feeling they have towards me. I wonder it is not one of
murderous hate--that they should lie here almost dying with unrepaid
labour for me. I stand and look at them, and these thoughts work in my
mind and heart, till I feel as if I must tell them how dreadful and how
monstrous it seems to me myself, and how bitterly ashamed and grieved I
feel for it all.
To-day I rode in the morning round poor Cripple Jack's bird field again,
through the sweet spicy-smelling pine land, and home by my new road cut
through Jones's wood, of which I am as proud as if I had made instead of
found it--the grass, flowering shrubs, and all. In the afternoon, I drove
in the wood wagon back to Jones's, and visited Busson Hill on the way,
with performances of certain promises of flannel, quarters of dollars, &c.
&c. At Jones's, the women to-day had all done their work at a quarter past
three, and had swept their huts out very scrupulously for my reception.
Their dwellings are shockingly dilapidated and over-crammed--poor
creatures!--and it seems hard that, while exhorting them to spend labour
in cleaning and making them tidy, I cannot promise them that they shall be
repaired and made habitable for them.
In driving home through my new wood cut, Jack gave me a terrible account
of a flogging that a negro called Glasgow had received yesterday. He
seemed awfully impressed with it; so I suppose it must have been an
unusually severe punishment; but he either would not or could not tell me
what the man had done. On my return to the house, I found Mr. ---- had
come down from the rice plantation, whereat I was much delighted on all
accounts. I am sure it is getting much too late for him to remain in that
pestilential swampy atmosphere; besides I want him to see my improvements
in the new wood paths, and I want him to come and hear all these poor
people's complaints and petitions himself. They have been flocking in to
see him ever since it was known he had arrived. I met coming on that
errand Dandy, the husband of the woman for whom I cut out the gown the
other day; and asking him how it had answered, he gave a piteous account
of its tearing all to pieces the first time she put it on; it had appeared
to me perfectly rotten and good for nothing, and, upon questioning him as
to where he bought it and what he paid for it, I had to hear a sad account
of hardship and injustice. I have told you that the people collect moss
from the trees and sell it to the shopkeepers in Darien for the purpose of
stuffing furniture; they also raise poultry, and are allowed to dispose of
the eggs in the same way. It seems that poor Dandy had taken the miserable
material Edie's gown was made of as payment for a quantity of moss and
eggs furnished by him at various times to one of the Darien storekeepers,
who refused him payment in any other shape, and the poor fellow had no
redress; and this, he tells me, is a frequent experience with all the
slaves both here and at the rice island. Of course, the rascally
shopkeepers can cheat these poor wretches to any extent they please with
perfect impunity.
Mr. ---- told me of a visit Renty paid him, which was not a little curious
in some of its particulars. You know none of the slaves are allowed the
use of fire arms; but Renty put up a petition to be allowed Mr. K----'s
gun, which it seems that gentleman left behind him. Mr. ---- refused this
petition, saying at the same time to the lad that he knew very well that
none of the people were allowed guns. Renty expostulated on the score of
his _white blood_, and finding his master uninfluenced by that
consideration, departed with some severe reflections on Mr. K----, his
father, for not having left him his gun as a keepsake, in token of
(paternal) affection, when he left the plantation.
It is quite late, and I am very tired, though I have not done much more
than usual to-day, but the weather is beginning to be oppressive to me,
who hate heat; but I find the people, and especially the sick in the
hospital, speak of it as cold. I will tell you hereafter of a most comical
account Mr. ---- has given me of the prolonged and still protracted
pseudo-pregnancy of a woman called Markie, who for many more months than
are generally required for the process of continuing the human species,
pretended to be what the Germans pathetically and poetically call 'in good
hope,' and continued to reap increased rations as the reward of her
expectation, till she finally had to disappoint the estate and receive a
flogging.
He told me too, what interested me very much, of a conspiracy among Mr.
C----'s slaves some years ago. I cannot tell you about it now; I will some
other time. It is wonderful to me that such attempts are not being made
the whole time among these people to regain their liberty; probably
because many are made ineffectually, and never known beyond the limits of
the plantation where they take place.
* * * * *
Dear E----. We have been having something like northern March
weather--blinding sun, blinding wind, and blinding dust, through all
which, the day before yesterday, Mr. ---- and I rode together round most
of the fields, and over the greater part of the plantation. It was a
detestable process, the more so that he rode Montreal and I Miss Kate, and
we had no small difficulty in managing them both. In the afternoon we had
an equally detestable drive through the new wood paths to St. Annie's, and
having accomplished all my errands among the people there, we crossed over
certain sounds, and seas, and separating waters, to pay a neighbourly
visit to the wife of one of our adjacent planters.
How impossible it would be for you to conceive, even if I could describe,
the careless desolation which pervaded the whole place; the shaggy unkempt
grounds we passed through to approach the house; the ruinous, rackrent,
tumble-down house itself, the untidy, slatternly all but beggarly
appearance of the mistress of the mansion herself. The smallest Yankee
farmer has a tidier estate, a tidier house, and a tidier wife than this
member of the proud southern chivalry, who, however, inasmuch as he has
slaves, is undoubtedly a much greater personage in his own estimation than
those capital fellows W---- and B----, who walk in glory and in joy behind
their ploughs upon your mountain sides. The Brunswick canal project was
descanted upon, and pronounced, without a shadow of dissent, a scheme the
impracticability of which all but convicted its projectors of insanity.
Certainly, if, as I hear the monied men of Boston have gone largely into
this speculation, their habitual sagacity must have been seriously at
fault; for here on the spot nobody mentions the project but as a subject
of utter derision.
While the men discussed about this matter, Mrs. B---- favoured me with the
congratulations I have heard so many times on the subject of my having a
white nursery maid for my children. Of course, she went into the old
subject of the utter incompetency of negro women to discharge such an
office faithfully; but in spite of her multiplied examples of their utter
inefficiency, I believe the discussion ended by simply our both agreeing
that ignorant negro girls of twelve years old are not as capable or
trustworthy as well-trained white women of thirty.
Returning home our route was changed, and Quash the boatman took us all
the way round by water to Hampton. I should have told you that our exit
was as wild as our entrance to this estate and was made through a broken
wooden fence, which we had to climb partly over and partly under, with
some risk and some obloquy, in spite of our dexterity, as I tore my dress,
and very nearly fell flat on my face in the process. Our row home was
perfectly enchanting; for though the morning's wind and (I suppose) the
state of the tide had roughened the waters of the great river, and our
passage was not as smooth as it might have been, the wind had died away,
the evening air was deliciously still, and mild, and soft. A young slip of
a moon glimmered just above the horizon, and 'the stars climbed up the
sapphire steps of heaven,' while we made our way over the rolling,
rushing, foaming waves, and saw to right and left the marsh fires burning
in the swampy meadows, adding another coloured light in the landscape to
the amber-tinted lower sky and the violet arch above, and giving wild
picturesqueness to the whole scene by throwing long flickering rays of
flame upon the distant waters.
_Sunday, the 14th._--I read service again to-day to the people. You cannot
conceive anything more impressive than the silent devotion of their whole
demeanour while it lasted, nor more touching than the profound thanks with
which they rewarded me when it was over, and they took their leave; and
to-day they again left me with the utmost decorum of deportment, and
without pressing a single petition or complaint, such as they ordinarily
thrust upon me on all other occasions, which seems to me an instinctive
feeling of religious respect for the day and the business they have come
upon, which does them infinite credit.
In the afternoon I took a long walk with the chicks in the woods; long at
least for the little legs of S---- and M----, who carried baby. We came
home by the shore, and I stopped to look at a jutting point, just below
which a small sort of bay would have afforded the most capital position
for a bathing house. If we stayed here late in the season, such a
refreshment would become almost a necessary of life, and anywhere along
the bank just where I stopped to examine it to-day, an establishment for
that purpose might be prosperously founded.
I am amused, but by no means pleased, at an entirely new mode of
pronouncing which S---- has adopted. Apparently the negro jargon has
commended itself as euphonious to her infantile ears, and she is now
treating me to the most ludicrous and accurate imitations of it every time
she opens her mouth. Of course I shall not allow this, comical as it is,
to become a habit. This is the way the southern ladies acquire the thick
and inelegant pronunciation which distinguishes their utterances from the
northern snuffle; and I have no desire that S---- should adorn her mother
tongue with either peculiarity. It is a curious and sad enough thing to
observe, as I have frequent opportunities of doing, the unbounded
insolence and tyranny (of manner, of course it can go no farther), of the
slaves towards each other. 'Hi! you boy!' and 'Hi! you girl!' shouted in
an imperious scream, is the civillest mode of apostrophising those at a
distance from them; more frequently it is 'You niggar, you hear? hi! you
niggar!' And I assure you no contemptuous white intonation ever equalled
the _prepotenza_ of the despotic insolence of this address of these poor
wretches to each other.
I have left my letter lying for a couple of days, dear E----. I have been
busy and tired; my walking and riding is becoming rather more laborious to
me, for, though nobody here appears to do so, I am beginning to feel the
relaxing influence of the spring.
The day before yesterday I took a disagreeable ride, all through swampy
fields and charred blackened thickets, to discover nothing either
picturesque or beautiful; the woods in one part of the plantation have
been on fire for three days, and a whole tract of exquisite evergreens has
been burnt down to the ground. In the afternoon I drove in the wood wagon
to visit the people at St. Annie's. There had been rain these last two
nights, and their wretched hovels do not keep out the weather; they are
really miserable abodes for human beings. I think pigs who were at all
particular might object to some of them. There is a woman at this
settlement called Sophy, the wife of a driver, Morris, who is so pretty
that I often wonder if it is only by contrast that I admire her so much,
or if her gentle, sweet, refined face, in spite of its dusky colour, would
not approve itself anywhere to any one with an eye for beauty. Her manner
and voice too are peculiarly soft and gentle; but, indeed, the voices of
all these poor people, men as well as women, are much pleasanter and more
melodious than the voices of white people in general. Most of the wretched
hovels had been swept and tidied out in expectation of my visit, and many
were the consequent petitions for rations of meat, flannel, osnaburgs,
etc. Promising all which, in due proportion to the cleanliness of each
separate dwelling, I came away. On my way home I called for a moment at
Jones' settlement to leave money and presents promised to the people
there, for similar improvement in the condition of their huts. I had not
time to stay and distribute my benefactions myself; and so appointed a
particularly bright intelligent looking woman, called Jenny, pay-mistress
in my stead; and her deputed authority was received with the utmost
cheerfulness by them all.
I have been having a long talk with Mr. ---- about Ben and Daphne, those
two young mulatto children of Mr. K----'s, whom I mentioned to you lately.
Poor pretty children! they have refined and sensitive faces as well as
straight regular features; and the expression of the girl's countenance,
as well as the sound of her voice, and the sad humility of her deportment,
are indescribably touching. Mr. B---- expressed the strongest interest in
and pity for them, _because of their colour_: it seems unjust almost to
the rest of their fellow unfortunates that this should be so, and yet it
is almost impossible to resist the impression of the unfitness of these
two forlorn young creatures, for the life of coarse labour and dreadful
degradation to which they are destined. In any of the southern cities the
girl would be pretty sure to be reserved for a worse fate; but even here,
death seems to me a thousand times preferable to the life that is before
her.
In the afternoon I rode with Mr. ---- to look at the fire in the woods. We
did not approach it, but stood where the great volumes of smoke could be
seen rising steadily above the pines, as they have now continued to do for
upwards of a week; the destruction of the pine timber must be something
enormous. We then went to visit Dr. and Mrs. G----, and wound up these
exercises of civilized life by a call on dear old Mr. C----, whose nursery
and kitchen garden are a real refreshment to my spirits. How completely
the national character of the worthy canny old Scot is stamped on the care
and thrift visible in his whole property, the judicious successful culture
of which has improved and adorned his dwelling in this remote corner of
the earth! The comparison, or rather contrast, between himself and his
quondam neighbour Major ----, is curious enough to contemplate. The Scotch
tendency of the one to turn everything to good account, the Irish
propensity of the other to leave everything to ruin, to disorder, and
neglect; the careful economy and prudent management of the mercantile
man, the reckless profusion, and careless extravagance of the soldier. The
one made a splendid fortune and spent it in Philadelphia, where he built
one of the finest houses that existed there, in the old-fashioned days,
when fine old family mansions were still to be seen breaking the
monotonous uniformity of the Quaker city. The other has resided here on
his estate ameliorating the condition of his slaves and his property, a
benefactor to the people and the soil alike--a useful and a good
existence, an obscure and tranquil one.
Last Wednesday we drove to Hamilton--by far the finest estate on St.
Simon's Island. The gentleman to whom it belongs lives, I believe,
habitually in Paris; but Captain F---- resides on it, and, I suppose, is
the real overseer of the plantation. All the way along the road (we
traversed nearly the whole length of the island) we found great tracts of
wood, all burnt or burning; the destruction had spread in every direction,
and against the sky we saw the slow rising of the smoky clouds that showed
the pine forest to be on fire still. What an immense quantity of property
such a fire must destroy! The negro huts on several of the plantations
that we passed through were the most miserable human habitations I ever
beheld. The wretched hovels at St. Annie's, on the Hampton estate, that
had seemed to me the _ne plus ultra_ of misery, were really palaces to
some of the dirty, desolate, dilapidated dog kennels which we passed
to-day, and out of which the negroes poured like black ants at our
approach, and stood to gaze at us as we drove by.
The planters' residences we passed were only three. It makes one ponder
seriously when one thinks of the mere handful of white people on this
island. In the midst of this large population of slaves, how absolutely
helpless they would be if the blacks were to become restive! They could be
destroyed to a man before human help could reach them from the main, or
the tidings even of what was going on be carried across the surrounding
waters. As we approached the southern end of the island, we began to
discover the line of the white sea sands beyond the bushes and
fields,--and presently, above the sparkling, dazzling line of snowy
white,--for the sands were as white as our English chalk
cliffs,--stretched the deep blue sea line of the great Atlantic Ocean.
We found that there had been a most terrible fire in the Hamilton
woods--more extensive than that on our own plantation. It seems as if the
whole island had been burning at different points for more than a week.
What a cruel pity and shame it does seem to have these beautiful masses of
wood so destroyed! I suppose it is impossible to prevent it. The 'field
hands' make fires to cook their mid-day food wherever they happen to be
working; and sometimes through their careless neglect, but sometimes too
undoubtedly on purpose, the woods are set fire to by these means. One
benefit they consider that they derive from the process is the destruction
of the dreaded rattlesnakes that infest the woodland all over the island;
but really the funeral pyre of these hateful reptiles is too costly at
this price.
Hamilton struck me very much,--I mean the whole appearance of the place;
the situation of the house, the noble water prospect it commanded, the
magnificent old oaks near it, a luxuriant vine trellis, and a splendid
hedge of Yucca gloriosa, were all objects of great delight to me. The
latter was most curious to me, who had never seen any but single specimens
of the plant, and not many of these. I think our green house at the north
boasts but two; but here they were growing close together, and in such a
manner as to form a compact and impenetrable hedge, their spiky leaves
striking out on all sides like _chevaux de frise_, and the tall slender
stems that bear those delicate ivory-coloured bells of blossoms, springing
up against the sky in a regular row. I wish I could see that hedge in
blossom. It must be wonderfully strange and lovely, and must look by
moonlight like a whole range of fairy Chinese pagodas carved in ivory.
At dinner we had some delicious green peas, so much in advance of you are
we down here with the seasons. Don't you think one might accept the
rattlesnakes, or perhaps indeed the slavery, for the sake of the green
peas? 'Tis a world of compensations--a life of compromises, you know; and
one should learn to set one thing against another if one means to thrive
and fare well, i.e. eat green peas on the twenty-eighth of March.
After dinner I walked up and down before the house for a long while with
Mrs. F----, and had a most interesting conversation with her about the
negroes and all the details of their condition. She is a kind-hearted,
intelligent woman; but though she seemed to me to acquiesce, as a matter
of inevitable necessity, in the social system in the midst of which she
was born and lives, she did not appear to me, by several things she
said, to be by any means in love with it. She gave me a very sad
character of Mr. K----, confirming by her general description of him the
impression produced by all the details I have received from our own
people. As for any care for the moral or religious training of the
slaves, that, she said, was a matter that never troubled his thoughts;
indeed, his only notion upon the subject of religion, she said, was,
that it was something _not bad_ for white women and children.
We drove home by moonlight; and as we came towards the woods in the middle
of the island, the fire-flies glittered out from the dusky thickets as if
some magical golden veil was every now and then shaken out into the
darkness. The air was enchantingly mild and soft, and the whole way
through the silvery night delightful.
My dear friend, I have at length made acquaintance with a live
rattlesnake. Old Scylla had the pleasure of discovering it while hunting
for some wood to burn. Israel captured it, and brought it to the house for
my edification. I thought it an evil-looking beast, and could not help
feeling rather nervous while contemplating it, though the poor thing had a
noose round its neck and could by no manner of means have extricated
itself. The flat head, and vivid vicious eye, and darting tongue, were
none of them lovely to behold; but the sort of threatening whirr produced
by its rattle, together with the deepening and fading of the marks on its
skin, either with its respiration or the emotions of fear and anger it was
enduring, were peculiarly dreadful and fascinating. It was quite a young
one, having only two or three rattles in its tail. These, as you probably
know, increase in number by one annually; so that you can always tell the
age of the amiable serpent you are examining--if it will let you count the
number of joints of its rattle. Captain F---- gave me the rattle of one
which had as many as twelve joints. He said it had belonged to a very
large snake which had crawled from under a fallen tree trunk on which his
children were playing. After exhibiting his interesting captive, Israel
killed, stuffed, and presented it to me for preservation as a trophy, and
made me extremely happy by informing me that there was a nest of them
where this one was found. I think with terror of S---- running about with
her little socks not reaching half-way up her legs, and her little frocks
not reaching half-way down them. However, we shall probably not make
acquaintance with many more of these natives of Georgia, as we are to
return as soon as possible now to the north. We shall soon be free again.