Coloured population of the south--Mississippi saddle and
horse caparisons--Ride through the city--Chain gang--Lynch
law--Want of a penitentiary--Difficulties in consequence--
Summary justice--Boating on the Mississippi--Chain gang and
the runaway--Suburbs--Orphan asylum--A past era.
For the tourist to give sketches of the south without adverting to the
slave population, would be as difficult, as for the historian to write
of the early settlement of America without alluding to the aborigines. I
shall, therefore, in this and two or three subsequent letters,
discursively, as the subject is suggested to me, introduce such notices
of the relative and actual condition of the slaves in this state, as may
have a tendency to correct any prejudices, which as a New-Englander you
may have imbibed, and set you right upon a subject, which has been
singularly misrepresented. With slavery in the abstract, my remarks have
nothing to do. Southerners and northerners think alike here--but I wish
to present the subject before you precisely, as during a long residence
in Mississippi it has constantly been presented to me--not to give you
_ex parte_ facts, and those from the darkest side of the
picture--recording the moan here, and omitting the smile
there--remembering the sound of the lash, and forgetting that of the
violin--painting the ragged slave, and passing by his gayly-dressed
fellow--but to state facts impartially and fearlessly, leaving you to
draw your own conclusions.
Aware of the nature of the ground, upon which I am about to venture, I
trust that I shall approach a subject upon which the sons of the
chivalresque south are naturally so sensitive--involving as it does, a
right so sacred as that of property--without those prejudices with which
a northerner might be supposed fore-armed. Among the numerous important
subjects with which the public mind within a few years past has been
agitated, no one has been so obscured by error, and altogether so little
understood as this.
In my letters from New-Orleans, there was but little allusion to this
subject, as I then possessed very slight and imperfect knowledge of it.
But the broad peculiarities of slavery, and the general traits of
African character differ not materially, whether exhibited on the
extensive sugar fields of Louisiana, or on the cotton plantations of
Mississippi. The relative situations, also, of the slaves are so much
alike, that a dissertation upon slavery as it exists in one state, can
with almost equal precision be applied to it as existing in the other.
All my remarks upon this subject, however, are the result only of my
observations in the state of Mississippi.
"Will you ride with me into the country?" said a young planter as we
rose from the _table d'hote_ of the Mansion house. "I am about
purchasing a few negroes, and a peep into a slave-mart may not be
uninteresting to you." I readily embraced the opportunity thus presented
of visiting a southern slave market; and in a few minutes our horses
were at the door--long-tailed pacers with flowing manes and slender
limbs. One of them was caparisoned with the deep concave Spanish saddle
I have so often mentioned, with a high pummel terminating in a round
flat head--and covered with blue broad-cloth, which hung nearly to the
stirrup, and, extending in one piece far behind, formed ample housings.
The other horse bore an ordinary saddle, over which was thrown a light
blue merino blanket several times folded, and secured to the saddle by a
gayly-woven surcingle. Southerners usually ride with a thick blanket,
oftener white than coloured, thus bound over their saddles, forming a
comfortable cushion, and another placed between the saddle and the back
of the horse. These blankets are considered indispensable in this
climate. They are not always of the purest white, and the negroes, whose
taste in this as well as in many other things might be improved, usually
put them on awry, with a ragged corner hanging down in fine contrast
with the handsome saddle, and in pleasant companionship with the cloth
skirts of the rider. These little matters, however, the southerner
seldom notices. If well mounted, which he is always sure to be, the
"keeping" of the _ensemble_ is but a secondary affair. The saddle
blankets are often unstrapped by the rider, in case of rain, and folded
about him after the manner of the Choctaws. This custom of wearing
blankets over the saddle originated with the old pioneers, who carried
them to sleep on, as they camped in the woods.
Crossing Cotton Square--the chief market place for cotton in the
city--we in a few minutes entered upon the great northern road leading
to Jackson, the capital of this state, and thence to Washington, the
seat of the general government. Near the intersection of this road with
the city streets, a sudden clanking of chains, startled our horses, and
the next instant a gang of negroes, in straggling procession, followed
by an ordinary looking white man armed with a whip, emerged from one of
the streets. Each negro carried slung over his shoulder a polished iron
ball, apparently a twenty-four pounder, suspended by a heavy ox chain
five or six feet in length and secured to the right ancle by a massive
ring. They moved along under their burthen as though it were any thing
but comfortable--some with idealess faces, looking the mere animal,
others with sullen and dogged looks, and others again talking and
laughing as though "Hymen's chains had bound them." This galley-looking
procession, whose tattered wardrobe seemed to have been stolen from a
chimney-sweep, was what is very appropriately termed the "Chain gang," a
fraternity well known in New-Orleans and Natchez, and valued for its
services in cleaning and repairing the streets. In the former city
however there is one for whites as well as blacks, who may be known by
their parti-coloured clothing. These gangs are merely moving
penitentiaries, appropriating that amount of labour, which at the north
is expended within four walls, to the broader limits of the city. In
Natchez, negro criminals only are thus honoured--a "coat of tar and
feathers" being applied to those white men who may require some kind of
discipline not provided by the courts of justice. This last summary
process of popular justice, or more properly excitement, termed "Lynch's
law," I believe from its originator, is too much in vogue in this state.
In the resentment of public as well as private wrongs, individuals have
long been in the habit of forestalling and improving upon the decisions
of the courts, by taking the execution of the laws into their own hands.
The consequence is, that the dignity of the bench is degraded, and
justice is set aside for the exhibition of wild outbreaks of popular
feeling. But this summary mode of procedure is now, to the honour of the
south, rapidly falling into disuse, and men feel willing to yield to the
dignity of the law and acquiesce in its decisions, even to the sacrifice
of individual prejudices. That "border" state of society from which the
custom originated no longer exists here--and the causes having ceased
which at first, in the absence of proper tribunals, may have rendered it
perhaps necessary thus to administer justice, the effect will naturally
cease also--and men will surrender the sword of justice to the public
tribunals, erected by themselves.
The want of a penitentiary has had a tendency to keep this custom alive
in this state longer than it would otherwise have existed. When an
individual is guilty of any offence, which renders him amenable to the
laws, he must either be acquitted altogether or suffer death. There is
no intermediate mode of punishment, except the stocks, whipping,
branding and cropping--the last two are seldom resorted to now as legal
punishments, and the others are regarded as too light an expiation for
an offence which merited a seven years' imprisonment. Therefore when a
criminal is acquitted, because his guilt is not quite sufficient to
demand the sacrifice of his life, but enough to confine him to many
years' hard labour in a state's prison--popular vengeance, if the nature
of his guilt has enlisted the feelings of the multitude--immediately
seizes upon him, and the poor wretch expiates his crime, by one of the
most cruel systems of justice that human ingenuity has ever invented.
When a criminal is here condemned to death, whose sentence in other
states would have been confinement for a limited period, there is in
public feeling sometimes a reaction, as singularly in the other extreme.
Petitions for his pardon are circulated, and, with columns of names
appended, presented to the governor, for here there can be no
commutation of a sentence of death.--There must be a free, unconditional
pardon or the scaffold. Sometimes a criminal under sentence of death is
pardoned by the governor, thinking his crime not sufficiently aggravated
to be atoned for by his life, which may often be the case in a state
where eleven crimes are punishable with death.[15] In such instances
the criminal, unless escorted beyond the reach of popular resentment,
receives from the multitude a commutation of his sentence, which,
through the tender mercies of his judges, is more dreadful than death
itself. Death indeed has in two or three instances terminated the
sufferings of these victims of public feeling; sometimes they have been
placed upright in a skiff with their arms pinioned behind them, and a
jug of whiskey placed at their feet, and thus thrown upon the mercy of
the Mississippi, down which under a burning sun, naked and bare-headed
they are borne, till rescued by some steamer, cast upon the inhospitable
shores, or buried beneath the waves. This act, inhuman as it may appear,
does not indicate a more barbarous or inhuman state of society than
elsewhere. It is the consequence of a deficiency in the mode and means
of punishment. Was there but one sentence passed upon all criminals in
sober New-England, and that sentence, death, humanity would lead to
numerous acquittals and pardons, while popular feeling, when it felt
itself injured, refusing to acquiesce in the total escape of the guilty,
would take upon itself to inflict that punishment which the code had
neglected to provide. A penitentiary in this state would at once do
away this custom, which however necessary it may appear in the opinion
of those who adhere to it, can never be defended.
The "chain gang," which led to this digression, consists of
insubordinate negroes and slaves, who, having run away from their
masters, have been taken up and confined in jail, to await the
reclamation of their owners; during the interval elapsing between their
arrest and the time of their liberation by their masters, they are daily
led forth from the prison to work on the streets, under the charge of an
overseer. This punishment is considered very degrading, and merely the
threat of the Calaboose, or the "ball and chain," will often intimidate
and render submissive the most incorrigible.
"Hi! Bill--dat you in ball and chain?" said, as we passed by, a young
slave well dressed and mounted on his master's fine saddle-horse; "I no
tink you eber runaway--you is a disgrace to we black gentlemen--I neber
'sociate wid you 'gain."
Bill, who was a tall, good-looking mulatto, the coachman of a gentleman
near town, and of course, high in the scale of African society--seemed
to feel the reproof, and be sensible of his degradation; for he hung his
head moodily and in silence. The other prisoners, however, began to
vituperate the young horseman, who was glad to escape from their
Billingsgate missiles, by quickening his speed.
When a runaway is apprehended he is committed to jail, and an
advertisement describing his person and wearing apparel, is inserted in
the newspaper for six months, if he is not claimed in the interim; at
the expiration of which period he may be sold at auction, and the
proceeds, after deducting all expenses, go to the use of the county.
Should the owner subsequently claim and prove his property, the amount
paid into the treasury, on account of the sale, is refunded to him. An
owner, making his claim before the six months have expired, and proving
his property before a justice of the peace, is allowed to take him away
on producing a certificate to that effect from the justice, and paying
the expenses incurred in the apprehension and securing of his slave. All
runaways, or suspected runaways, may lawfully be apprehended, and
carried before a justice of the peace, who at his discretion may either
commit them to jail, or send them to the owner, and the person by whom
the arrest was made, is entitled to six dollars for each, on delivering
him to his master.
The road, for the first mile after leaving town, passed through a
charming country, seen at intervals, and between long lines of
unpainted, wretched looking dwellings, occupied as "groggeries," by free
negroes, or poor emigrants. The contrast between the miserable buildings
and their squalid occupants, and the rich woodlands beyond them on
either side, among whose noble trees rose the white columns and lofty
roofs of elegant villas, was certainly very great, but far from
agreeable. On a hill a short distance from the road the "Orphan Asylum"
was pointed out to me, by my companion, as a monument of the benevolence
and public spirit of the ladies of Natchez. Shortly after the prevalence
of a great epidemic in this city, seventeen years ago, which left many
children orphans, and destitute, a few distinguished ladies formed
themselves into a society for their aid, obtained bountiful
subscriptions, for on such occasions hearts and purses are freely
opened, gathered the parentless children scattered throughout the city,
and placed them in this asylum, where all destitute orphans have since
found a home. The institution is now in a flourishing state, and is
under the patronage of several ladies of great respectability. Some
distance beyond the asylum, to the left, a fine view of groves and green
hills, presenting a prospect strikingly resembling English park scenery,
terminated in the roofs and columns of a "southern palace" rising above
rich woods and evergreen foliage--the residence of the family of a late
distinguished officer under the Spanish _regime_. These massive
structures, with double colonnades and spacious galleries, peculiar to
the opulent southern planter, are numerous in the neighbourhood of
Natchez, but they date back to the great cotton era, when fortunes were
made almost in a single season. Magnificence was then the prevailing
taste, and the walls of costly dwellings rose, as the most available
means of displaying to the public eye the rapidly acquired wealth of
successful speculators. But times are now somewhat changed. The rage for
these noble and expensive structures has passed away, and those which
are now seen, rear themselves among magnificent groves--monuments only
of the past, when the good old customs of Virginia characterized the
inhabitants. These were for the most part gentlemen of education, or
officers of the army--for those were military times. This was the day of
dinner parties and courtly balls--an era to which the gentlemen, who
participated in them, now look back with a sigh. Perhaps no state--not
even Virginia herself, which Mississippi claims as her mother
country--could present a more hospitable, chivalrous, and high-minded
class of men, or more cultivated females than this, during the first few
years, subsequent to its accession to the Union.