THE POOR WHITES, SOUTH
"No seeming of logic can ever convince the American people, that
thousands of our slave-holding brethren are not excellent,
humane, and even Christian men, fearing God, and keeping His
commandments."--Rev. Dr. Joel Parker.
"You like these parts better than New York," said Carlton to
Snyder, as they were sitting down to dinner in the overseer's
dwelling. "I can't say that I do," was the reply; "I came here
ten years ago as missionary, and Mr. Peck wanted me to stay, and I
have remained. I travel among the poor whites during the week and
preach for the niggers on Sunday." "Are there many poor whites in
this district?" "Not here, but about thirty miles from here, in
the Sand Hill district; they are as ignorant as horses. Why it
was no longer than last week I was up there, and really you would
not believe it, that people were so poor off. In New England,
and, I may say, in all the free states, they have free schools,
and everybody gets educated. Not so here. In Connecticut there is
only one out of every five hundred above twenty-one years that
can neither read nor write. Here there is one out of every eight
that can neither read nor write. There is not a single newspaper
taken in five of the counties in this state. Last week I was at
Sand Hill for the first time, and I called at a farmhouse. The
man was out. It was a low log-hut, and yet it was the best house
in that locality. The woman and nine children were there, and the
geese, ducks, chickens, pigs, and children were all
running about the floor. The woman seemed scared at me when I
entered the house. I inquired if I could get a little dinner, and
my horse fed. She said, yes, if I would only be good enough to
feed him myself, as her 'gal,' as she called her daughter, would
be afraid of the horse. When I returned into the house again from
the stable, she kept her eyes upon me all the time. At last she
said, 'I s'pose you ain't never bin in these parts afore?' 'No,'
said I. 'Is you gwine to stay here long?' 'Not very long,' I
replied. 'On business, I s'pose.' 'Yes,' said I, 'I am hunting up
the lost sheep of the house of Israel.' 'Oh,' exclaimed she,
'hunting for lost sheep is you? Well, you have a hard time to find
'em here. My husband lost an old ram last week, and he ain't found
him yet, and he's hunted every day.' 'I am not looking for
four-legged sheep,' said I, 'I am hunting for sinners.' 'Ah'; she
said, 'then you are a preacher.' 'Yes,' said I. 'You are the
first of that sort that's bin in these diggins for many a day.'
Turning to her eldest daughter, she said in an excited tone, 'Clar
out the pigs and ducks, and sweep up the floor; this is a
preacher.' And it was some time before any of the children would
come near me; one remained under the bed (which, by the by, was
in the same room), all the while I was there. 'Well,' continued
the woman, 'I was a tellin' my man only yesterday that I would
like once more to go to meetin' before I died, and he said as he
should like to do the same. But as you have come, it will save us
the trouble of going out of the district.'" "Then you found some
of the lost sheep," said Carlton. "Yes," replied Snyder, "I did
not find anything else up there. The state makes no provision for
educating the poor: they are unable to do it themselves, and they
grow up in a state of ignorance and degradation. The men hunt and
the women have to go in the fields and labour." "What is
the cause of it?" inquired Carlton. "Slavery," answered Snyder,
slavery,--and nothing else. Look at the city of Boston; it pays
more taxes for the support of the government than this entire
state. The people of Boston do more business than the whole
population of Mississippi put together. I was told some very
amusing things while at Sand Hill. A farmer there told me a story
about an old woman, who was very pious herself. She had a husband
and three sons, who were sad characters, and she had often prayed
for their conversion but to no effect. At last, one day while
working in the corn-field, one of her sons was bitten by a
rattlesnake. He had scarce reached home before he felt the poison,
and in his agony called loudly on his Maker.
"The pious old woman, when she heard this, forgetful of her son's
misery, and everything else but the glorious hope of his
repentance, fell on her knees, and prayed as follows--'Oh! Lord,
I thank thee, that thou hast at last opened Jimmy's eyes to the
error of his ways; and I pray that, in thy Divine mercy, thou
wilt send a rattlesnake to bite the old man, and another to bite
Tom, and another to bite Harry, for I am certain that nothing but
a rattlesnake, or something of the kind, will ever turn them from
their sinful ways, they are so hard-headed.' When returning home,
and before I got out of the Sand Hill district, I saw a funeral,
and thought I would fasten my horse to a post and attend. The
coffin was carried in a common horse cart, and followed by fifteen
or twenty persons very shabbily dressed, and attended by a man
whom I took to be the religious man of the place. After the
coffin had been placed near the grave, he spoke as follows,--
"'Friends and neighbours! you have congregated to see this lump
of mortality put into a hole in the ground. You all
know the deceased--a worthless, drunken, good-for-nothing
vagabond. He lived in disgrace and infamy, and died in
wretchedness. You all despised him--you all know his brother Joe,
who lives on the hill? He's not a bit better though he has
scrap'd together a little property by cheating his neighbours. His
end will be like that of this loathsome creature, whom you will
please put into the hole as soon as possible. I won't ask you to
drop a tear, but brother Bohow will please raise a hymn while we
fill up the grave.'"
"I am rather surprised to hear that any portion of the whites in
this state are in so low a condition." "Yet it is true," returned
Snyder.
"These are very onpleasant facts to be related to ye, Mr.
Carlton," said Huckelby; "but I can bear witness to what Mr.
Snyder has told ye." Huckelby was from Maryland, where many of
the poor whites are in as sad a condition as the Sand Hillers of
Mississippi. He was a tall man, of iron constitution, and could
neither read nor write, but was considered one of the best
overseers in the country. When about to break a slave in, to do a
heavy task, he would make him work by his side all day; and if
the new hand kept up with him, he was set down as an able bodied
man. Huckelby had neither moral, religious, or political
principles, and often boasted that conscience was a matter that
never "cost" him a thought. "Mr. Snyder ain't told ye half about
the folks in these parts," continued he; "we who comes from more
enlightened parts don't know how to put up with 'em down here.
I find the people here knows mighty little indeed; in fact, I may
say they are univarsaly onedicated. I goes out among none on 'em,
'cause they ain't such as I have been used to 'sociate with. When
I gits a little richer, so that I can stop work, I tend to go
back to Maryland, and spend the rest of my days." "I wonder the
Negroes don't attempt to get their freedom by physical force." "It
ain't no use for 'em to try that, for if they do, we puts 'em
through by daylight," replied Huckelby. "There are some desperate
fellows among the slaves," said Snyder. "Indeed," remarked
Carlton. "Oh, yes," replied the preacher. "A case has just taken
place near here, where a neighbour of ours, Mr. J. Higgerson,
attempted to correct a Negro man in his employ, who resisted, drew
a knife, and stabbed him (Mr. H.) in several places. Mr. J. C.
Hobbs (a Tennessean) ran to his assistance. Mr. Hobbs stooped to
pick up a stick to strike the Negro, and, while in that position,
the Negro rushed upon him, and caused his immediate death. The
Negro then fled to the woods, but was pursued with dogs, and soon
overtaken. He had stopped in a swamp to fight the dogs, when the
party who were pursuing him came upon him, and commanded him to
give up, which he refused to do. He then made several efforts to
stab them. Mr. Roberson, one of the party, gave him several blows
on the head with a rifle gun; but this, instead of subduing, only
increased his desperate revenge. Mr. R. then discharged his gun
at the Negro, and missing him, the ball struck Mr. Boon in the
face, and felled him to the ground. The Negro, seeing Mr. Boon
prostrated, attempted to rush up and stab him, but was prevented
by the timely interference of some one of the party. He was then
shot three times with a revolving pistol, and once with a rifle,
and after having his throat cut, he still kept the knife firmly
grasped in his hand, and tried to cut their legs when they
approached to put an end to his life. This chastisement was given
because the Negro grumbled, and found fault with his master for
flogging his wife." "Well, this is a bad state of affairs indeed,
and especially the condition of the poor whites," said Carlton.
"You see," replied Snyder, "no white man is respectable in
these slave states who works for a living. No community
can be prosperous, where honest labour is not honoured. No
society can be rightly constituted, where the intellect is not
fed. Whatever institution reflects discredit on industry,
whatever institution forbids the general culture of the
understanding, is palpably hostile to individual rights, and to
social well-being. Slavery is the incubus that hangs over the
Southern States." "Yes," interrupted Huckelby; "them's just my
sentiments now, and no mistake. I think that, for the honour of
our country, this slavery business should stop. I don't own any,
no how, and I would not be an overseer if I wern't paid for it."