War-rumours, and military movements--Governor Manning’s slave
plantations--Fortunes made by slave-labour--Frogs for the
table--The forest--Cotton and sugar--A thunderstorm.
_June 7th._--The Confederate issue of ten millions sterling, in
bonds payable in twenty years, is not sufficient to meet the
demands of Government; and the four millions of small Treasury
notes, without interest, issued by Congress, are being rapidly
absorbed. Whilst the Richmond papers demand an immediate movement
on Washington, the journals of New York are clamouring for an
advance upon Richmond. The planters are called upon to accept the
Confederate bonds in payment of the cotton to be contributed by the
States.
Extraordinary delusions prevail on both sides. The North believe
that battalions of scalping Indian savages are actually stationed
at Harper’s Ferry. One of the most important movements has been
made by Major-General M‘Clellan, who has marched a force into
Western Virginia from Cincinnati, has occupied a portion of the
line of the Baltimore and Ohio railway, which, was threatened with
destruction by the Secessionists; and has already advanced as far
as Grafton. Gen. M‘Dowell has been appointed to the command of the
Federal forces in Virginia. Every day regiments are pouring down
from the North to Washington. General Butler, who is in command at
Fortress Monroe, has determined to employ negro fugitives, whom
he has called “Contrabands,” in the works about the fort, feeding
them, and charging the cost of their keep against the worth of
their services; and Mr. Cameron, the Secretary of War, has ordered
him to refrain from surrendering such slaves to their masters,
whilst he is to permit no interference by his soldiers with the
relations of persons held to service under the laws of the States
in which they are in.
Mr. Jefferson Davis has arrived at Richmond. At sea the Federal
steamers have captured a number of Southern vessels; and some small
retaliations have been made by the Confederate privateers. The
largest mass of the Confederate troops have assembled at a place
called Manassas Junction, on the railway from Western Virginia to
Alexandria.
The Northern papers are filled with an account of a battle at
Philippi, and a great victory, in which no less than two of their
men were wounded and two were reported missing as the whole
casualties; but Napoleon scarcely expended so much ink over
Austerlitz as is absorbed on this glory in the sensation headings
of the New York papers.
After breakfast I accompanied a party of Mr. Burnside’s friends
to visit the plantations of Governor Manning, close at hand. One
plantation is as like another as two peas. We had the same paths
through tasseling corn, high above our heads, or through wastes of
rising sugar-cane; but the slave quarters on Governor Manning’s
were larger, better built, and more comfortable-looking than any I
have seen.
Mr. Bateman, the overseer, a dour strong man, with spectacles on
nose, and a quid in his cheek, led us over the ground. As he saw my
eye resting on a large knife in a leather case stuck in his belt,
he thought it necessary to say, “I keep this to cut my way through
the cane brakes about; they are so plaguey thick.”
All the surface water upon the estate is carried into a large open
drain, with a reservoir in which the fans of a large wheel, driven
by steam-power, are worked so as to throw the water over to a cut
below the level of the plantation, which carries it into a bayou
connected with the lower Mississippi.
In this drain one of my companions saw a prodigious frog, about
the size of a tortoise, on which he pounced with alacrity; and on
carrying his prize to land he was much congratulated by his friend.
“What on earth will you do with the horrid reptile?” “Do with it!
why, eat it to be sure.” And it is actually true, that on our
return the monster ‘crapaud’ was handed over to the old cook, and
presently appeared on the breakfast-table, looking very like an
uncommonly fine spatchcock, and was partaken of with enthusiasm by
all the company.
From the draining-wheel we proceeded to visit the forest, where
negroes were engaged in clearing the trees, turning up the soil
between the stumps, which marked where the mighty sycamore, live
oak, gum-trees, and pines had lately shaded the rich earth. In some
places the Indian corn was already waving its head and tassels
above the black gnarled roots; in other spots the trees, girdled
by the axe, but not yet down, rose up from thick crops of maize;
and still deeper in the wood negroes were guiding the ploughs,
dragged with pain and difficulty by mules, three abreast, through
the tangled roots and rigid earth, which will next year be fit for
sowing. There were one hundred and twenty negroes at work; and
these, with an adequate number of mules, will clear four hundred
and fifty acres of land this year. “But it’s death on niggers and
mules,” said Mr. Bateman. “We generally do it with Irish, as well
as the hedging and ditching; but we can’t get them now, as they are
all off to the wars.”
Although the profits of sugar are large, the cost of erecting
the machinery, the consumption of wood in the boiler, and the
scientific apparatus demand a far larger capital than is required
by the cotton planter, who, when he has got land, may procure
negroes on credit, and only requires food and clothing till he can
realise the proceeds of their labour, and make a certain fortune.
Cotton will keep where sugar spoils. The prices are far more
variable in the latter, although it has a protective tariff of 20
per cent.
The whole of the half million of hogsheads of the sugar grown in
the South is consumed in the United States, whereas most of the
cotton is sent abroad; but in the event of a blockade the South can
use its sugar _ad nauseam_, whilst the cotton is all but useless in
consequence of the want of manufacturers in the South.
When I got back, Mr. Burnside was seated in his verandah, gazing
with anxiety, but not with apprehension, on the marching columns
of black clouds, which were lighted up from time to time by heavy
flashes, and shaken by rolls of thunder. Day after day the planters
have been looking for rain, tapping glasses, scrutinising aneroids,
consulting negro weather prophets, and now and then their
expectations were excited by clouds moving down the river, only to
be disappointed by their departure into space, or, worse than all,
their favouring more distant plantations with a shower that brought
gold to many a coffer. “Did you ever see such luck? Kenner has got
it again! That’s the third shower Bringier has had in the last two
days.”
But it was now the turn of all our friends to envy us a tremendous
thunderstorm, with a heavy, even downfall of rain, which was sucked
up by the thirsty earth almost as fast as it fell, and filled the
lusty young corn with growing pains, imparting such vigour to the
cane that we literally saw it sprouting up, and could mark the
increase in height of the stems from hour to hour.
My good host is rather uneasy about his prospects this year, owing
to the war; and no wonder. He reckoned on an income of £100,000 for
his sugar alone; but if he cannot send it North it is impossible
to estimate the diminution of his profits. I fancy, indeed, he
more and more regrets that he embarked his capital in these great
sugar-swamps, and that he would gladly now invest it at a loss in
the old country, of which he is yet a subject; for he has never
been naturalised in the United States. Nevertheless, he rejoices
in the finest clarets, and in wines of fabulous price, which are
tended by an old white-headed negro, who takes as much care of the
fluid as if he was accustomed to drink it every day.