Produced by University of Michigan Digital Library,
Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, Josephine Paolucci and the
Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
AUNT PHILLIS'S CABIN;
OR,
SOUTHERN LIFE AS IT IS.
BY
MRS. MARY H. EASTMAN.
PHILADELPHIA:
LIPPINCOTT, GRAMBO & CO.
1852.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1862, by
LIPPINCOTT, GRAMBO & CO.
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Eastern District of
Pennsylvania.
Transcriber's note: Minor typos in text corrected. Footnotes moved
to end of text.
PREFACE.
A writer on Slavery has no difficulty in tracing back its origin. There is
also the advantage of finding it, with its continued history, and the laws
given by God to govern his own institution, in the Holy Bible. Neither
profane history, tradition, nor philosophical research are required to
prove its origin or existence; though they, as all things must, come
forward to substantiate the truth of the Scriptures. God, who created the
human race, willed they should be holy like himself. Sin was committed, and
the curse of sin, death, was induced: other punishments were denounced for
the perpetration of particular crimes--the shedding of man's blood for
murder, and the curse of slavery. The mysterious reasons that here
influenced the mind of the Creator it is not ours to declare. Yet may we
learn enough from his revealed word on this and every other subject to
confirm his power, truth, and justice. There is no Christian duty more
insisted upon in Scripture than reverence and obedience to parents. "Honor
thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long in the land which the
Lord thy God giveth thee." The relation of child to parent resembles
closely that of man to his Creator. He who loves and honors his God will
assuredly love and honor his parents. Though it is evidently the duty of
every parent so to live as to secure the respect and affection of his
child, yet there is nothing in the Scriptures to authorize a child
treating with disrespect a parent, though he be unworthy in the greatest
degree.
The human mind, naturally rebellious, requires every command and incentive
to submission. The first of the ten commandments, insisting on the duty
owing to the Creator, and the fifth, on that belonging to our parents, are
the sources of all order and good arrangement in the minor relations of
life; and on obedience to them depends the comfort of society.
Reverence to age, and especially where it is found in the person of those
who by the will of God were the authors of their being, is insisted upon in
the Jewish covenant--not indeed less required now; but as the Jews were
called from among the heathen nations of the earth to be the peculiar
people of God, they were to show such evidences of this law in their
hearts, by their conduct, that other nations might look on and say, "Ye are
the children of the Lord your God."
It was after an act of a child dishonoring an aged father, that the
prophecy entailing slavery as a curse on a portion of the human race was
uttered. Nor could it have been from any feeling of resentment or revenge
that the curse was made known by the lips of a servant of God; for this
servant of God was a parent, and with what sorrow would any parent, yea,
the worst of parents, utter a malediction which insured such punishment and
misery on a portion of his posterity! Even the blessing which was promised
to his other children could not have consoled him for the sad necessity. He
might not resist the Spirit of God: though with perfect submission he
obeyed its dictates, yet with what regret! The heart of any Christian
parent will answer this appeal!
We may well imagine some of the reasons for the will of God in thus
punishing Ham and his descendants. Prior to the unfilial act which is
recorded, it is not to be supposed he had been a righteous man. Had he been
one after God's own heart, he would not have been guilty of such a sin.
What must that child be, who would openly dishonor and expose an erring
parent, borne down with the weight of years, and honored by God as Noah had
been! The very act of disrespect to Noah, the chosen of God, implies wilful
contempt of God himself. Ham was not a young man either: he had not the
excuse of the impetuosity of youth, nor its thoughtlessness--he was himself
an old man; and there is every reason to believe he had led a life at
variance with God's laws. When he committed so gross and violent a sin, it
may be, that the curse of God, which had lain tranquil long, was roused and
uttered against him: a curse not conditional, not implied--now, as then, a
mandate of the Eternal.
Among the curses threatened by the Levites upon Mount Ebal, was the one
found in the 16th verse of the 27th chapter of Deuteronomy: "Cursed be he
that setteth light by his father or his mother." By the law of Moses, this
sin was punished with death: "Of the son which will not obey the voice of
his father or the voice of his mother," "all the men of his city shall
stone him with stones that he die." (Deut. xxi. 21.) God in his wisdom
instituted this severe law in early times; and it must convince us that
there were reasons in the Divine mind for insisting on the ordinance
exacting the most perfect submission and reverence to an earthly parent.
"When, after the deluge," says Josephus, "the earth was settled in its
former condition, Noah set about its cultivation; and when he had planted
it with vines, and when the fruit was ripe, and he had gathered the grapes
in the season, and the wine was ready for use, he offered a sacrifice and
feasted, and, being inebriated, fell asleep, and lay in an unseemly
manner. When Ham saw this, he came laughing, and showed him to his
brothers." Does not this exhibit the impression of the Jews as regards the
character of Ham? Could a man capable of such an act deserve the blessing
of a just and holy God?
"The fact of Noah's transgression is recorded by the inspired historian
with that perfect impartiality which is peculiar to the Scriptures, as an
instance and evidence of human frailty and imperfection. Ham appears to
have been a bad man, and probably he rejoiced to find his father in so
unbecoming a situation, that, by exposing him, he might retaliate for the
reproofs which he had received from his parental authority. And perhaps
Canaan first discovered his situation, and told it to Ham. The conduct of
Ham in exposing his father to his brethren, and their behaviour in turning
away from the sight of his disgrace, form a striking contrast."--_Scott's
Com._
We are told in Gen. ix. 22, "And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the
nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without;" and in the
24th, 25th, 26th, and 27th verses we read, "And Noah awoke from his wine,
and knew what his younger son had done unto him; and he said, Cursed be
Canaan, a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. And he said,
Blessed be the Lord God of Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant. God shall
enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem, and Canaan shall
be his servant." Is it not preposterous that any man, any Christian, should
read these verses and say slavery was not instituted by God as a curse on
Ham and Canaan and their posterity?
And who can read the history of the world and say this curse has not
existed ever since it was uttered?
"The whole continent of Africa," says Bishop Newton, "was peopled
principally by the descendants of Ham; and for how many ages have the
better parts of that country lain under the dominion of the Romans, then of
the Saracens, and now of the Turks! In what wickedness, ignorance,
barbarity, slavery, misery, live most of the inhabitants! And of the poor
negroes, how many hundreds every year are sold and bought like beasts in
the market, and conveyed from one quarter of the world to do the work of
beasts in another!"
But does this curse authorize the slave-trade? God forbid. He commanded the
Jews to enslave the heathen around them, saying, "they should be their
bondmen forever;" but he has given no such command to other nations. The
threatenings and reproofs uttered against Israel, throughout the old
Testament, on the subject of slavery, refer to their oppressing and keeping
in slavery their own countrymen. Never is there the slightest imputation of
sin, as far as I can see, conveyed against them for holding in bondage the
children of heathen nations.
Yet do the Scriptures evidently permit slavery, even to the present time.
The curse on the serpent, ("And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because
thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle and above every beast
of the field,") uttered more than sixteen hundred years before the curse of
Noah upon Ham and his race, has lost nothing of its force and true meaning.
"Cursed is the ground for thy sake: in sorrow shalt thou eat of it, all the
days of thy life," said the Supreme Being. Has this curse failed or been
removed?
Remember the threatened curses of God upon the whole Jewish tribe if they
forsook his worship. Have not they been fulfilled?
However inexplicable may be the fact that God would appoint the curse of
continual servitude on a portion of his creatures, will any one _dare_,
with the Bible open in his hands, to say the fact does not exist? It is not
ours to decide _why_ the Supreme Being acts! We may observe his dealings
with man, but we may not ask, until he reveals it, Why hast thou thus done?
"Cursed is every one who loves not the Lord Jesus Christ." Are not all
these curses recorded, and will they not all be fulfilled? God has
permitted slavery to exist in every age and in almost every nation of the
earth. It was only commanded to the Jews, and it was with them restricted
to the heathen, ("referring entirely to the race of Ham, who had been
judicially condemned to a condition of servitude more than eighteen hundred
years before the giving of the law, by the mouth of Noah, the medium of the
Holy Ghost.") No others, at least, were to be enslaved "forever." Every
book of the Old Testament records a history in which slaves and God's laws
concerning them are spoken of, while, as far as profane history goes back,
we cannot fail to see proofs of the existence of slavery. "No legislator of
history," says Voltaire, "attempted to abrogate slavery. Society was so
accustomed to this degradation of the species, that Epictetus, who was
assuredly worth more than his master, never expresses any surprise at his
being a slave." Egypt, Sparta, Athens, Carthage, and Rome had their
thousands of slaves. In the Bible, the best and chosen servants of God
owned slaves, while in profane history the purest and greatest men did the
same. In the very nation over whose devoted head hung the curse of God,
slavery, vindictive, lawless, and cruel slavery, has prevailed. It is said
no nation of the earth has equalled the Jewish in the enslaving of negroes,
except the negroes themselves; and examination will prove that the
descendants of Ham and Canaan have, as God foresaw, justified by their
conduct the doom which he pronounced against them.
But it has been contended that the people of God sinned in holding their
fellow-creatures in bondage! Open your Bible, Christian, and read the
commands of God as regards slavery--the laws that he made to govern the
conduct of the master and the slave!
But again--_we_ live under the glorious and new dispensation of Christ; and
He came to establish God's will, and to confirm such laws as were to
continue in existence, to destroy such rules as were not to govern our
lives!
When there was but one family upon the earth, a portion of the family was
devoted to be slaves to others. God made a covenant with Abraham: he
included in it his slaves. "He that is born in thy house, and he that is
bought with thy money," are the words of Scripture. A servant of Abraham
says, "And the Lord has blessed my master greatly, and he is become great,
and he hath given him flocks and herds, and silver and gold, and
men-servants and maid-servants, and camels and asses."
The Lord has called himself the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. These
holy men were slaveholders!
The existence of slavery then, and the sanction of God on his own
institution, is palpable from the time of the pronouncing of the curse,
until the glorious advent of the Son of God. When he came, slavery existed
in every part of the world.
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came from heaven and dwelt upon the earth:
his mission to proclaim the will of God to a world sunk in the lowest
depths of iniquity. Even the dear and chosen people of God had departed
from him--had forsaken his worship, and turned aside from his commands.
He was born of a virgin. He was called Emmanuel. He was God with us.
Wise men traveled from afar to behold the Child-God--they knelt before
him--they opened their treasures--they presented to them gifts. Angels of
God descended in dreams, to ensure the protection of his life against the
king who sought it. He emerged from infancy, and grew in favour with God
and man. He was tempted but not overcome--angels came again from heaven to
minister to him. He fulfilled every jot and tittle of the law, and entered
upon the duties for which he left the glories of heaven.
That mission was fulfilled. "The people which sat in darkness saw great
light, and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is
sprung up."
Look at his miracles--the cleansing of the leper, the healing of the sick,
the casting out unclean spirits, the raising of the dead, the rebuking of
the winds and seas, the control of those possessed with devils--and say,
was he not the Son of God--yea, was he not God?
Full of power and goodness he came into the world, and light and glory
followed every footstep. The sound of his voice, the glance of his eye, the
very touch of the garment in which his assumed mortality was arrayed, was a
medicine mighty to save. He came on an errand of mercy to the world, and he
was all powerful to accomplish the Divine intent; but, did he emancipate
the slave? The happiness of the human race was the object of his coming;
and is it possible that the large portion of them then slaves could have
escaped his all-seeing eye! Did he condemn the institution which he had
made? Did he establish universal freedom? Oh! no; he came to redeem the
world from the power of sin; his was no earthly mission; he did not
interfere with the organization of society. He healed the sick servant of
the centurion, but he did not command his freedom; nor is there a word that
fell from his sacred lips that could be construed into a condemnation of
that institution which had existed from the early ages of the world,
existed then, and is continued now. The application made by the
Abolitionist of the golden rule is absurd: it might then apply to the
child, who _would have_ his father no longer control him; to the
apprentice, who _would_ no longer that the man to whom he is bound should
have a right to direct him. Thus the foundations of society would be
shaken, nay, destroyed. Christ would have us deal with others, not as they
desire, but as the law of God demands: in the condition of life in which we
have been placed, we must do what we conscientiously believe to be our duty
to our fellow-men.
Christ alludes to slavery, but does not forbid it. "And the servant abideth
not in the house forever, but the son abideth ever. If the Son therefore
shall make you free, you are free indeed."
In these two verses of the Gospel of St. John, there is a manifest allusion
to the fact and condition of slaves. Of this fact the Saviour took
occasion, to illustrate, by way of similitude, the condition of a wicked
man, who is the slave of sin, and to show that as a son who was the heir in
a house _could_ set a bondman free, if that son were of the proper age, so
he, the Son of God, could set the enslaved soul free from sin, when he
would be "free indeed." Show me in the history of the Old Testament, or in
the life of Christ, authority to proclaim _as a sin_ the holding of the
race of Ham and Canaan in bondage.
In the times of the apostles, what do we see? Slaves are still in bondage,
the children of Ham are menials as they were before. Christ had come, had
died, had ascended to heaven, and slavery still existed. Had the apostles
authority to do it away? Had Christ left it to them to carry out, in this
instance, his revealed will?
"Art thou," said Paul, "called being a slave? care not for it; but if thou
mayest be made free, use it rather. Let every man abide in the same calling
wherein he is called." "Let as many servants as are under the yoke count
their own masters worthy of all honor, that the name of God and his
doctrines be not blasphemed. And they that have believing masters, let them
not despise them, because they are brethren, but rather do them service,
because they are faithful and beloved, partakers of the benefit."
It is well known and often quoted that the holy apostle did all he could to
restore a slave to his master--one whom he had been the means of making
free in a spiritual sense. Yet he knew that God had made Onesimus a slave,
and, when he had fled from his master, Paul persuaded him to return and to
do his duty toward him. Open your Bible, Christian, and carefully read the
letter of Paul to Philemon, and contrast its spirit with the incendiary
publications of the Abolitionists of the present day. St. Paul was not a
fanatic, and therefore _could not be_ an Abolitionist. The Christian age
advanced and slavery continued, and we approach the time when our fathers
fled from persecution to the soil we now call our own, when they fought for
the liberty to which they felt they had a right. Our fathers fought for it,
and our mothers did more when they urged forth their husbands and sons, not
knowing whether the life-blood that was glowing with religion and
patriotism would not soon be dyeing the land that had been their refuge,
and where they fondly hoped they should find a happy home. Oh, glorious
parentage! Children of America, trace no farther back--say not the crest of
nobility once adorned thy father's breast, the gemmed coronet thy mother's
brow--stop here! it is enough that they earned for thee a home--a free, a
happy home. And what did they say to the slavery that existed then and had
been entailed upon them by the English government? Their opinions are
preserved among us--they were dictated by their position and
necessities--and they were wisely formed. In the North, slavery was
useless; nay, more, it was a drawback to the prosperity of that section of
the Union--it was dispensed with. In other sections, gradually, our people
have seen their condition would be more prosperous without slaves--they
have emancipated them. In the South, they are necessary: though an evil, it
is one that cannot be dispensed with; and here they have been retained, and
will be retained, unless God should manifest his will (which never yet has
been done) to the contrary. Knowing that the people of the South still have
the views of their revolutionary forefathers, we see plainly that many of
the North have rejected the opinions of theirs. Slaves were at the North
and South considered and recognized as property, (as they are in
Scripture.) The whole nation sanctioned slavery by adopting the
Constitution which provides for them, and for their restoration (when
fugitive) to their owners. Our country was then like one family--their
souls had been tried and made pure by a united struggle--they loved as
brothers who had suffered together. Would it were so at the present day!
The subject of slavery was agitated among them; many difficulties occurred,
but they were all settled--and, they thought, effectually. They agreed
then, on the propriety of giving up runaway slaves, unanimously. Mr.
Sherman, of Connecticut, "saw no more impropriety in the public seizing and
surrendering a slave or servant than a horse!" (Madison's Papers.) This was
then considered a compromise between the North and South. Henry Clay and
Daniel Webster--the mantle of their illustrious fathers descended to them
from their own glorious times. The slave-trade was discontinued after a
while. As long as England needed the sons and daughters of Africa to do
her bidding, she trafficked in the flesh and blood of her fellow-creatures;
but our immortal fathers put an end to the disgraceful trade. They saw its
heinous sin, for they had no command to enslave the heathen; but they had
no command to emancipate the slave; therefore they wisely forbore farther
to interfere. They drew the nice line of distinction between an unavoidable
evil and a sin.
Slavery was acknowledged, and slaves considered as property all over our
country, at the North as well as the South--in Pennsylvania, New York, and
New Jersey. Now, has there been any law reversing this, except in the
States that have become free? Out of the limits of these States, slaves are
property, according to the Constitution. In the year 1798, Judge Jay, being
called on for a list of his taxable property, made the following
observation:--"I purchase slaves and manumit them at proper ages, when
their faithful services shall have afforded a reasonable retribution." "As
free servants became more common, he was gradually relieved from the
necessity of purchasing slaves." (See Jay's Life, by his son.)
Here is the secret of Northern emancipation: they were _relieved from the
necessity_ of slavery. Rufus King, for many years one of the most
distinguished statesmen of the country, writes thus to John B. Coles and
others:--"I am perfectly anxious not to be misunderstood in this case,
never having thought myself at liberty to encourage or assent to any
measure that would affect the security of property in slaves, or tend to
disturb the political adjustment which the Constitution has made respecting
them."
John Taylor, of New York, said, "If the weight and influence of the South
be increased by the representation of that which they consider a part of
their property, we do not wish to diminish them. The right by which this
property is held is derived from the Federal Constitution; we have neither
inclination nor power to interfere with the laws of existing States in this
particular; on the contrary, they have not only a right to reclaim their
fugitives whenever found, but, in the event of domestic violence, (which
God in his mercy forever avert!) the whole strength of the nation is bound
to be exerted, if needful, in reducing it to subjection, while we recognize
these obligations and will never fail to perform them."
How many more could be brought! opinions of great and good men of the
North, acknowledging and maintaining the rights of the people of the South.
Everett, Adams, Cambreleng, and a host of others, whose names I need not
give. "Time was," said Mr. Fletcher in Boston, (in 1835, at a great meeting
in that city,) "when such sentiments and such language would not have been
breathed in this community. And here, on this hallowed spot, of all places
on earth, should they be met and rebuked. Time was, when the British
Parliament having declared 'that they had a right to bind us in all cases
whatsoever,' and were attempting to bind our infant limbs in fetters, when
a voice of resistance and notes of defiance had gone forth from this hall,
then, when Massachusetts, standing for her liberty and life, was alone
breasting the whole power of Britain, the generous and gallant Southerners
came to our aid, and our fathers refused not to hold communion with
slaveholders. When the blood of our citizens, shed by a British soldiery,
had stained our streets and flowed upon the heights that surround us, and
sunk into the earth upon the plains of Lexington and Concord, then when he,
whose name can never be pronounced by American lips without the strongest
emotion of gratitude and love to every American heart,--when he, that
slaveholder, (pointing to a full-length portrait of Washington,) who, from
this canvass, smiles upon his children with paternal benignity, came with
other slaveholders to drive the British myrmidons from this city, and in
this hall our fathers did not refuse to hold communion with them.
"With slaveholders they formed the confederation, neither asking nor
receiving any right to interfere in their domestic relations: with them,
they made the Declaration of Independence."
To England, not to the United States, belongs whatever odium may be
attached to the introduction of slavery into our country. Our fathers
abolished the slave-trade, but permitted the continuation of domestic
slavery.
Slavery, authorized by God, permitted by Jesus Christ, sanctioned by the
apostles, maintained by good men of all ages, is still existing in a
portion of our beloved country. How long it will continue, or whether it
will ever cease, the Almighty Ruler of the universe can alone determine.
I do not intend to give a history of Abolition. Born in fanaticism,
nurtured in violence and disorder, it exists too. Turning aside the
institutions and commands of God, treading under foot the love of country,
despising the laws of nature and the nation, it is dead to every feeling of
patriotism and brotherly kindness; full of strife and pride, strewing the
path of the slave with thorns and of the master with difficulties,
accomplishing nothing good, forever creating disturbance.
The negroes are still slaves--"while the American slaveholders,
collectively and individually, ask no favours of any man or race that
treads the earth. In none of the attributes of men, mental or physical, do
they acknowledge or fear superiority elsewhere. They stand in the broadest
light of the knowledge, civilization, and improvement of the age, as much
favored of Heaven as any other of the sons of Adam."
AUNT PHILLIS'S CABIN.
CHAPTER I.
There would be little to strike the eye of a traveler accustomed to
picturesque scenes, on approaching the small town of L----. Like most of
the settlements in Virginia, the irregularity of the streets and the want
of similarity in the houses would give an unfavorable first impression. The
old Episcopal church, standing at the entrance of the town, could not fail
to be attractive from its appearance of age; but from this alone. No
monuments adorn the churchyard; head-stones of all sizes meet the eye, some
worn and leaning against a shrub or tree for support, others new and white,
and glistening in the sunset. Several family vaults, unpretending in their
appearance, are perceived on a closer scrutiny, to which the plants usually
found in burial-grounds are clinging, shadowed too by large trees. The
walls where they are visible are worn and discolored, but they are almost
covered with ivy, clad in summer's deepest green. Many a stranger stopped
his horse in passing by to wonder at its look of other days; and some, it
may be, to wish they were sleeping in the shades of its mouldering walls.
The slight eminence on which the church was built, commanded a view of the
residences of several gentlemen of fortune who lived in the neighborhood.
To the nearest one, a gentleman on horseback was directing his way. The
horse required no direction, in truth, for so accustomed was he to the ride
to Exeter, and to the good fare he enjoyed on arriving there, that neither
whip nor spur was necessary; he traced the familiar road with evident
pleasure.
The house at Exeter was irregularly built; but the white stone wings and
the look-out over the main building gave an appearance of taste to the
mansion. The fine old trees intercepted the view, though adding greatly to
its beauty. The porter's lodge, and the wide lawn entered by its open
gates, the gardens at either side of the building, and the neatness and
good condition of the out-houses, all showed a prosperous state of affairs
with the owner. Soon the large porch with its green blinds, and the
sweetbrier entwining them, came in view, and the family party that occupied
it were discernible. Before Mr. Barbour had reached the point for alighting
from his horse, a servant stood in readiness to take charge of him, and
Alice Weston emerged from her hiding-place among the roses, with her usual
sweet words of welcome. Mr. Weston, the owner of the mansion and its
adjoining plantation, arose with a dignified but cordial greeting; and Mrs.
Weston, his sister-in-law, and Miss Janet, united with him in his kind
reception of a valued guest and friend.
Mr. Weston was a widower, with an only son; the young gentleman was at this
time at Yale College. He had been absent for three years; and so anxious
was he to graduate with honor, that he had chosen not to return to Virginia
until his course of study should be completed. The family had visited him
during the first year of his exile, as he called it, but it had now been
two years since he had seen any member of it. There was an engagement
between him and his cousin, though Alice was but fifteen when it was
formed. They had been associated from the earliest period of their lives,
and Arthur declared that should he return home on a visit, he would not be
able to break away from its happiness to the routine of a college life: he
yielded therefore to the earnest entreaties of his father, to remain at New
Haven until he graduated.
Mr. Weston will stand for a specimen of the southern gentleman of the old
school. The bland and cheerful expression of his countenance, the
arrangement of his soft fine hair, the fineness of the texture and the
perfect cleanliness of every part of his dress, the plaiting of his
old-fashioned shirt ruffles, the whiteness of his hand, and the sound of
his clear, well-modulated voice--in fact, every item of his appearance--won
the good opinion of a stranger; while the feelings of his heart and his
steady course of Christian life, made him honored and reverenced as he
deserved. He possessed that requisite to the character of a true gentleman,
a kind and charitable heart.
None of the present members of his family had any lawful claim upon him,
yet he cherished them with the utmost affection. He requested his brother's
widow, on the death of his own wife, to assume the charge of his house; and
she was in every respect its mistress. Alice was necessary to his
happiness, almost to his existence; she was the very rose in his garden of
life. He had never had a sister, and he regarded Alice as a legacy from his
only brother, to whom he had been most tenderly attached: had she been
uninteresting, she would still have been very dear to him; but her beauty
and her many graces of appearance and character drew closely together the
bonds of love between them; Alice returning, with the utmost warmth, her
uncle's affection.
Mrs. Weston was unlike her daughter in appearance, Alice resembling her
father's family. Her dark, fine eyes were still full of the fire that had
beamed from them in youth; there were strongly-marked lines about her
mouth, and her face when in repose bore traces of the warfare of past
years. The heart has a writing of its own, and we can see it on the
countenance; time has no power to obliterate it, but generally deepens the
expression. There was at times too a sternness in her voice and manner, yet
it left no unpleasant impression; her general refinement, and her fine
sense and education made her society always desirable.
Cousin Janet, as she was called by them all, was a dependant and distant
relation; a friend faithful and unfailing; a bright example of all that is
holy and good in the Christian character. She assisted Mrs. Weston greatly
in the many cares that devolved on the mistress of a plantation, especially
in instructing the young female servants in knitting and sewing, and in
such household duties as would make them useful in that state of life in
which it had pleased God to place them. Her heart was full of love to all
God's creatures; the servants came to her with their little ailings and
grievances, and she had always a soothing remedy--some little specific for
a bodily sickness, with a word of advice and kindness, and, if the case
required it, of gentle reproof for complaints of another nature. Cousin
Janet was an old maid, yet many an orphan and friendless child had shed
tears upon her bosom; some, whose hands she had folded together in prayer
as they knelt beside her, learning from her lips a child's simple petition,
had long ago laid down to sleep for ever; some are living still, surrounded
by the halo of their good influence. There was one, of whom we shall speak
by-and-by, who was to her a source of great anxiety, and the constant
subject of her thoughts and fervent prayers.
Many years had gone by since she had accepted Mr. Weston's earnest entreaty
to make Exeter her home; and although the bread she eat was that of
charity, yet she brought a blessing upon the house that sheltered her, by
her presence: she was one of the chosen ones of the Lord. Even in this day,
it is possible to entertain an angel unawares. She is before you, reader,
in all the dignity of old age, of a long life drawing to a close; still to
the last, she works while it is yet day!
With her dove-colored dress, and her muslin three-cornered handkerchief,
pinned precisely at the waist and over her bosom, with her eyes sunken and
dim, but expressive, with the wrinkles so many and so deep, and the thin,
white folds of her satin-looking hair parted under her cap; with her silver
knitting-sheath attached to her side, and her needles in ever busy hands,
Cousin Janet would perhaps first arrest the attention of a stranger, in
spite of the glowing cheek and golden curls that were contrasting with her.
It was the beauty of old age and youth, side by side. Alice's face in its
full perfection did not mar the loveliness of hers; the violet eyes of the
one, with their long sweep of eyelash, could not eclipse the mild but deep
expression of the other. The rich burden of glossy hair was lovely, but so
were the white locks; and the slight but rounded form was only compared in
its youthful grace to the almost shadowy dignity of old age.
It was just sundown, but the servants were all at home after their day's
work, and they too were enjoying the pleasant evening time. Some were
seated at the door of their cabins, others lounging on the grass, all at
ease, and without care. Many of their comfortable cabins had been recently
whitewashed, and were adorned with little gardens in front; over the one
nearest the house a multiflora rose was creeping in full bloom. Singularly
musical voices were heard at intervals, singing snatches of songs, of a
style in which the servants of the South especially delight; and not
unfrequently, as the full chorus was shouted by a number, their still more
peculiar laugh was heard above it all. Mr. Barbour had recently returned
from a pleasure tour in our Northern States, had been absent for two
months, and felt that he had not in as long a time witnessed such a scene
of real enjoyment. He thought it would have softened the heart of the
sternest hater of Southern institutions to have been a spectator here; it
might possibly have inclined him to think the sun of his Creator's
beneficence shines over every part of our favored land.
"Take a seat, my dear sir," Mr. Weston said, "in our sweetbrier house, as
Alice calls it; the evening would lose half its beauty to us, if we were
within."
"Alice is always right," said Mr. Barbour, "in every thing she says and
does, and so I will occupy this arm-chair that I know she placed here for
me. Dear me! what a glorious evening! Those distant peaks of the Blue Ridge
look bluer than I ever saw them before."
"Ah! you are glad to tread Virginia soil once more, that is evident
enough," said Mr. Weston. "There is no danger of your getting tired of your
native state again."
"Who says I was ever tired of her? I challenge you to prove your
insinuation. I wanted to see this great New England, the 'great Norrurd,'
as Bacchus calls it, and I have seen it; I have enjoyed seeing it, too; and
now I am glad to be at home again."
"Here comes Uncle Bacchus now, Mr. Barbour," said Alice; "do look at him
walk. Is he not a curiosity? He has as much pretension in his manner as if
he were really doing us a favor in paying us a visit."
"The old scamp," said Mr. Barbour, "he has a frolic in view; he wants to go
off to-morrow either to a campmeeting, or a barbecue. He looks as if he
were hooked together, and could be taken apart limb by limb."
Bacchus had commenced bowing some time before he reached the piazza, but on
ascending the steps he made a particularly low bow to his master, and then
in the same manner, though with much less reverence, paid his respects to
the others.
"Well, Bacchus?" said Mr. Weston.
"How is yer health dis evenin, master? You aint been so well latterly.
We'll soon have green corn though, and that helps dispepsy wonderful."
"It may be good for dyspepsia, Bacchus," said Mr. Weston, "but it sometimes
gives old people cholera morbus, when they eat it raw; so I advise you to
remember last year's experience, and roast it before you eat it."
"I shall, indeed," replied Bacchus; "'twas an awful time I had last summer.
My blessed grief! but I thought my time was done come. But de Lord was
mighty good to me, he brought me up again--Miss Janet's physic done me more
good though than any thing, only it put me to sleep, and I never slept so
much in my born days."
"You were always something of a sleeper, I am told, Bacchus," said Cousin
Janet; "though I have no doubt the laudanum had that effect; you must be
more prudent; old people cannot take such liberties with themselves."
"Lor, Miss Janet, I aint so mighty ole now; besure I aint no chicken
nother; but thar's Aunt Peggy; she's what I call a raal ole nigger; she's
an African. Miss Alice, aint she never told you bout de time she seed an
elerphant drink a river dry?"
"Yes," said Alice, "but she dreamed that."
"No, Miss, she actually seed it wid her own eyes. They's mighty weak and
dim now, but she could see out of 'em once, I tell ye. It's hot nuff here
sometimes, but Aunt Peggy says it's winter to what 'tis in Guinea, whar she
was raised till she was a big gall. One day when de sun was mighty strong,
she seed an elerphant a comin along. She runned fast enough, she had no
'casion to grease her heels wid quicksilver; she went mighty fast, no
doubt; she didn't want dat great beast's hoof in her wool. You and me seed
an elerphant de time we was in Washington, long wid master, Miss Alice, and
I thought 'bout Aunt Peggy that time. 'Twas a _'nageree_ we went to. You
know I held you in my arms over de people's heads to see de monkeys ride.
"Well, Aunt Peggy say she runned till she couldn't run no longer, so she
clumb a great tree, and sat in de branches and watched him. He made
straight for de river, and he kicked up de sand wid his hoofs, as he went
along, till he come to de bank; den he begins to drink, and he drinks, I
tell you. Aunt Peggy say every swaller he took was least a gallon, and he
drunk all dat blessed mornin. After a while she seed de water gitting very
low, and last he gits enuff. He must a got his thirst squinched by dat
time. So Aunt Peggy, she waded cross de river, when de elephant had went,
and two days arter dat, de river was clean gone, bare as my hand. Master,"
continued Bacchus, "I has a great favor to ax of you."
"Barbecue or campmeeting, Bacchus?" said Mr. Barbour.
"If you please, master," said he, addressing Mr. Weston, but at the same
time giving an imploring look to Mr. Barbour, "to 'low me to go way
to-morrow and wait at de barbecue. Mr. Semmes, he wants me mightily; he
says he'll give me a dollar a day if I goes. I'll sure and be home agin in
the evenin."
"I am afraid to give you permission," said Mr. Weston; "this habit of
drinking, that is growing upon you, is a disgrace to your old age. You
remember you were picked up and brought home in a cart from campmeeting
this summer, and I am surprised that you should so soon ask a favor of me."
"I feels mighty shamed o' that, sir," said Bacchus, "but I hope you will
'scuse it. Niggers aint like white people, no how; they can't 'sist
temptation. I've repented wid tears for dat business, and 'twont happen
agin, if it please the Lord not to lead me into temptation."
"You led yourself into temptation," said Mr. Weston; "you took pains to
cross two or three fences, and to go round by Norris's tavern, when, if
you had chosen, you could have come home by the other road."
"True as gospel, ma'am," said Bacchus, "I don't deny de furst word of it;
the Lord forgive me for backsliding; but master's mighty good to us, and if
he'll overlook that little misfortune of mine, it shan't happen agin."
"You call it a misfortune, do you, Bacchus?" said Mr. Barbour; "why, it
seems to me such a great Christian as you are, would have given the right
name to it, and called it a sin. I am told you are turned preacher?"
"No, sir," said Bacchus, "I aint no preacher, I warn't called to be; I
leads in prayer sometimes, and in general I rises de tunes."
"Well, I suppose I can't refuse you," said Mr. Weston; "but come home
sober, or ask no more permissions."
"God bless you, master; don't be afeard: you'll see you can trust me. I
aint gwine to disgrace our family no more. I has to have a little change
sometimes, for Miss Janet knows my wife keeps me mighty straight at home.
She 'lows me no privileges, and if I didn't go off sometimes for a little
fun, I shouldn't have no health, nor sperrets nother."
"You wouldn't have any sperrits, that's certain," said Alice, laughing; "I
should like to see a bottle of whisky in Aunt Phillis's cabin."
Bacchus laughed outright, infinitely overcome at the suggestion. "My
blessed grief! Miss Alice," said he, "she'd make me eat de bottle, chaw up
all de glass, swaller it arter dat. I aint ever tried dat yet--best not to,
I reckon. No, master, I intends to keep sober from this time forrurd, till
young master comes back; _den_ I shall git high, spite of Phillis, and
'scuse me, sir, spite of de devil hisself. When is he comin, any how, sir?"
"Next year, I hope, Bacchus," said Mr. Weston.
"Long time, sir," said Bacchus; "like as not he'll never see old Aunt Peggy
agin. She's failin, sir, you can see by de way she sets in de sun all day,
wid a long switch in her hand, trying to hit de little niggers as dey go
by. Sure sign she's gwine home. If she wasn't altogether wore out, she'd be
at somefin better. She's sarved her time cookin and bakin, and she's gwine
to a country whar there's no 'casion to cook any more. She's a good old
soul, but wonderful cross sometimes."
"She has been an honest, hard-working, and faithful servant, and a sober
one too," said Mr. Weston.
"I understand, sir," said Bacchus, humbly; "but don't give yourself no
oneasiness about me! I shall be home to-morrow night, ready to jine in at
prayers."
"Very well--that will do, Bacchus," said Mr. Weston, who felt anxious to
enjoy the society of his friend.
"Good evenin to you all," said Bacchus, retreating with many bows.
We will see how Bacchus kept his word, and for the present leave Mr. Weston
to discuss the subjects of the day with his guest; while the ladies paid a
visit to Aunt Peggy, and listened to her complaints of "the flies and the
little niggers," and the thousand and one ailings that belong to the age of
ninety years.