OUR SLATE STATES. JOTJRlSrE Y SEABOARD SLATE STATES, WITH REMARKS ON THBIB EOOKOMT. -FKEDEKICK LAW OLMSTED, AUTHOK OF " WALlfs ArfD TAtKS OF AN AMERICAN FAR NEW YOEK: DIX & EDWAKDS. LONDON: SAMPSON LOW, SON & CO. 1856. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1856, by FREDERICK LAW OLMSTED, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the S District of Now York. HOLMAN & GRAY ADVERTISEMENT. IN the year 1853, the author of this work made a journey through the Seaboard Slave States, and gave an account of his observations in the " New York Daily Times," under the signature of " Yeoman." Thofe letters excited some attention, and their publication in a book was "-inounced ; but, before preparing them for the prels, the author had occafion to make a second and longer viiit to the South. In tfe light of the experience then gathered, the letters have been revifed, and, with much additional matter, are now prcfented to the public. The author's observations on Cotton Plantations, and in the fron tier and hill-country of the South, .may form the subject of a subfequent volume. PREFACE. THK chief design of the author in writing this book has been, to describe what was most interesting, amusing, and instructive to himself, during the first three of fourteen months' traveling in our Slave States ; using the later experience to correct the erroneous impressions of the earlier. He is aware that it has one fault--it is too fault finding. He is sorry for it, but it cannot now be helped; so at the outset, let the reader understand that he is invited to travel in company "with an honest growler. But growling is sometimes a duty; and the traveler might well be suspected of being a " dead head," or a sneak, who did not find frequent occasion for its performance, among the notoriously careless, make shift, impersistent people of the South. For the rest, the author had, at the outset of his journey, a determination to see things for himself, as far as possible, and to see tliem carefully and fairly, but cheerfully and kindly. It "was his disposition, also, to search for the causes and extenuating circumstances, past and present, of those phenomena which are com monly reported to the prejudice of the slaveholding community; and especially of those features which are manifestly most to be regretted in the actual condition of the older Slave States. He protests that he has been influenced by no par tisan bias ; none, at least, in the smallest degree un friendly to fair investigation, and honest reporting. At the same time, he avows himself a democrat; not in the technical and partisan, but in the primary and essential sense of that term. As a democrat he went to study the South--its institutions, and its people ; more than ever a democrat, he has returned from this labor, and written the pages which follow. SouTH-Sir>K STATES ISLAND, Jan- 9, 185G. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. WASHIN GTO KT. ad Farm, 5; Slave La n Market-Woman, 12 ; Men, 15.0 CHAPTER II. VIRGINIA. Rail-road Glimpses, 1C; Richmond, 19; The "Public Guard," and what it means, 20 ; Pretense and Parsimony, 21; The Model American---Houdon'8 Statue, 22; Public Grounds, Arboriculture, 23; A Slave Funeral, 24; The Slaves on Sunday, 27 ; Dandies, White and Black, 28; Slaves as Merchandise, 30; A James River Form, 40 ; Slave Labor, tho Owner hard worked, 44 ; Overseers, 45 ; A Coal Mine--Negro and English Miners, 47; Valuable Serv ants, 49 ; Press and Style of People, 50; Tho Great, Southern Route, and its Past Train, 52 ; One of tho Law-Givers, 54; Freight Taken--the Slave Trade, 55 ; Taking Core of Negroes, 58; Rural Scenery, and Life in Virginia, 59; Pretty Jane, 62; A Sovereign--A School House, fi4 ; "Old-Fields"-- Wild Boasts, 65 ; Explicit Direction, 67 ; The " Straight Road," GiJ ; A Farm House, 71; The Grocery, 73 ; The Court House, 74 ; The Inn, 75 ; The New Man, and the Old House, 77 ; Domestic Life, 80; White Laborers, 82; A Calamity, 83;' Bed-time, 85; Settling, SO; The Wilderness--The MeetingHoueo, 87; An Old Tobacco Plantation, 88 ; Thinking and Working--Irish and Negro Labor, 91 ; A Free Labor Farm, 94 ; Freed Slaves, 95 ; Uncle Tom, 97; White Hands, 99; Runaways, 100; Recreation and Luxury among the Slaves, 101; A Bar-Room Session--Ingenuity of the Negro, 103 ; Qualities as a Laborer, 104 ; Improvement--Educational Privileges, 106; A Distinguished Divine, 107; How they are fed in Virginia, 108 ; Lodgings, 111; Clothing. CONTENTS . Slaves, 118 ; Another for Masters, 122 ; A. Firm Faith, 123 -, Free Negroes, their Condition in Virginia, and elsewhere, 125; Petersburg to Norfolk, 133, James Biver--Norfolk, 135 ; Neglected OppaL-tumties, 137 ; Legitimate Trade--Mopus, 141; Education of Laborers, and of Merchants--Influence of Slavery, 146 ; Labor for the Navy, 148 : The Dismal Swamps, and the Lum ber Trade, 149; Slave Lumbermen Life in the Swamp--Slaves Quasi Free men, 153 ; The Effect of Wages to Slaves, 155 ; Agricultural Value of Swamp Land, 156 ; The Truck Business of Xorfolk, 153 ; Kunawaya in the Swamp, 159; Dismal Negro Hunting, 160. 0 H A P T B K III. THE ECONOMY OF VIRGINIA. Statistics of the Elements of Wealth, and of the Actual Results of Labor, 164; Of Intellectual Labor, 172 - What is not the Cause of the comparative Pov erty, 173 ; Propriety of the Inquiry, 177; Explanations suggested, 180 ; ThenIng aflj.ciency, 1S1-, Cost and Value of Labor in Virginia, and in the Wealthier States, compared, 185; Loss to the Employer from Illness, etc., 186 ; Curious Complaints of Slaves, 191 -, House Servants, Free and Slave, compared, 1W5 , Value of Good Will in Work, 198; The Alleged Slavery effected by Com petition, 200 ; The Comparative Amount of Work accomplished by Slave Labor and Competitive Labor, 203; Driving, 205; Conclusion, 207; Why Fvee Labor, if cheaper, does not drive out Slavery, ^08 ; Hestilts wiere Free Labor has been concentrated, 213 ; The Great Experiment of the United States, 214. OHAPTEKIT. THE POLITICAL EXPERIENCE OF VIRGINIA. Borne Data and Phenomena of the Virginia Experiments in Political Economy-- how Initiated, 216 -, Convict Christian Slaves, 223; Christian Bond Servants, 227; Heathen, or Infidel Slaves, 231 ; Quality and Education of the Colonial Laborers, 234-, The Proprietors, 234-, Early Tobacco Culture, 236; \Vhat might have been, 240 ; Style of Living, 241; Wealth and Extravagance of tibe Colonial Aristocracy, 243; Industrial Condition of Virginia in the Hal cyon Past, 348; The Revolution of 1776--Excitement and Eeaction, 255; Religious Liberty, 257; Primogeniture and Entail, S59; Education and Emancipation of the Slave People, 261 ; Of the White Poor, 267 ; Social Re sults of the Revolution, 269 -, Industrial Results, 271 ; Downfall of the Aris tocracy, 273 ; Effect of Democracy, 275 ; Industrial Progress, 277 ; Rise of the Internal Slave Trade, 278; Its Industrial Consequences, 280; Influence * CONTENTS. Xlll Condition of the Slave, 281; Effect of the Abolition Agitation, 284; Present the Political Tendencies in Virginia, 288 ; Education, 291;'The Future Pros pect, 302. O H A P T M it V NORTH CAROLINA. Mine Ease in mine Hotel, 305 ; Petersburg to Weldon. 307 ; Stage Coaching, 309 ; Lazy Niggers, 313; Negroes on Public Conveyances, 315; The Idee of Potaesum a First-Eater, 317 ; Night Trains, 317 ; Raleigh, 318; Evergreens, 319 ; A Stage Coach Campaign, 320 ; Bawley, Rock, and Bob, 323 ; The Piny Wood, 325; A Horse-Siller, 329 ; A Praying Blacksmith, 331; Talent Ap plied to Inn-Keeping, 332; Fire! Turn Out! 337; Turpentine, and Naval Stores--An Account of the Method of Collection, and of Manufacture, 337 ; Distillation, 343; Rosin, 345; Tar, 347; Slaves in the Turpentine Country, and White Vagabonds, 388; The North Carolina Fisheries, and Slave Fisher men, 351 ; Titanic Dentistry, 354; Slaves Eager to work when stimulated by Wages, 355; Scotch Highlanders--Immigration to North Carolina, 355; A Cotton Mill, 356; Wagoners, 357; Boatmen, 359; Tobacco-Rollers, 360; Improved Means of Transport, 361 ; Gross Intermeddling of Northerners, 363 ; Wagon Competition with Rail-roads, 364; Plank Roads, 365; North Carolina Character, 366 ; Slavery in North Carolina. 367 ; Cape Fear River, 368; Wooding Up, 369 ; Labor in the Glue Trade, 371; Wilmington, 374; Property Interests, 375. On AFTER VI. SOUTH CAROLINA AND GEORGIA. Rail-road Gang, 377; Northern Hay, 378; Profit of Slave-Labor, 379; Rough Riding, 380; " Very Nice Country," 382 ; Natural Scenery, 382 ; The People, 384 ; Their Habitations, 3S5 ; Cotton Plantations, 3S6; Field Hands, 387; An Overseer, 388 ; A Free Nigger, 389 ; North Carolina and South Carolina Nig gers, 391 ; A Pleasant Farm House, 393 ; Negro Jodling--the Carolina Tell, 394 ; Camp Fires, 395 ; Slaves at "Work, 397 ; Conversation with a Peasant, 398 ; His Geographical Knowledge--Education of the Children of the Higher Class, 402 ; Manners and Morale in South Carolina, 403; Charleston, 404; Savannah, 405 ; Slave Funerals, 405 ; A Slave Grave-Yard--Tombs to nee, 406 ; * The Rice Coast, 409 ; Northern Invalids and Other Travelers, and the Ac commodations for them, 409 ; " Show Plantations," 412 ; The Crackers, 413; Negro Quarters, 416 ; A Delightful Mansion, Wonderful Live Oak Avenue, 417;^risit to a Rice Plantation, 418; The Rice Coast Malaria, 418 : House - Servants and Field Hands, 421 ; Negro Quarters, 422; The Slave Nursery, 423 ; Teufelsdrockh's Secret of Happiness, 425 ; The Watchman--an intelligent and trusty Slave, 426; How he became so--Effect of Education, 429; UV CONTENTS. What is the Economy of Slavery, 429; Field Hands, 430 ; Foocl, 431; More Field Hands, their Ureas and Appearance, 432 ; " Water Toters," 433 ; Grades Punishment, 438 ; Slaves taking care of themselves, 43y ; Nefarious Traders and Grog-Shops, 441 ; Laws of Trade on the Plantation, 442; A Scheme of Emancipation suggested, 443 ; Special Depravity of the Negro, 446 ; Slave Marriages and Funeral:}, 448; Slave Chapels and Worship, 441J; Slave Clergy, 450 -, A Religions Service among tuo Crackers. 451. CHAPTER- VII. J11C13, AND ITS CULTUIiE. C H A P T E H VIII. XPERIMENTAL POLITICAL, ECONOMY OF SOUTH CAROLINA AND GKEOliG-IA. he Democratic Social Theory, 489 ; The South Carolina Social Theory, 431 ; ism," 49.-J ; The Karly Klack Codfi 496; Progress, 497; .Result, 500; Good Condition, 515 ; The Predicament, 522 ; The Origin of the Georgia Communi- gated, 528 ; Influence of the Early Democracy, 529 ; Consequences of Slavery, 531 ; Note on Ship-Building, 540 ; On Manufacturca, and other Industry, 542. O II A P T 13 K IX. ALABAMA. Georgia Eail-roads, 546; Columbus--Manufacturing Workmen, 547; Mont gomery, 549 ; The Alabama Ifiver, 549 ; Loading Cotton, 551) ; Value of Slaves goem-ea Care of them,550; Xegro Singers, 551 ; Capacity of the Negro. 552 ; Slave High Life, 554; A Negro Lover, 554; A Negro Overseeing a White Laborer, 555; Natural Affection of Slaves, 555; Their Loyalty to their Masters, 550; Conversation with a Good Subject, 557; The Citizens, 559; Characteristics, 560 ; A Droll Texan, 560; How he talked, 561 ; Not a Bet- CONTENTS. XV ting, but a Cotton Man, 562; Deck Hands, Negro JoUity, and Wastefulness, 5G4; Mobile, 565; Passage to New Orleans--Tcx&n Immigrants, OGS ; Bad Speculation with a Negro, 570 ; ji Peasant--Conversation about Slavery and Abolition, 572. O II A I" T E R X . ECONOMICAL. EXPERIENCE OF ALABAMA, Origin, 574; Emigration, 570 ; Present Condition and Prospects, 576. CHAPTER XI. LOUISIANA. New Orleans, 578; French Aspect, 5SO; The Cathedral, 58^; Gradations of Color among; the People, 583, Pine Negro Stock, 584 ; The Slave Trade, Economically, 585 ; Could Europeans displace Negroes in the Climate, 58G ; Mechanics and Laborers, 587; Competition of Free and Slave, 589; Com merce and Slavery, 591; The Lorettes, 594 ; Licentiousness and Extrava gance--Democratic Education, 598 ; lied River Emigrant Craft, COS ; Uncle Tom and the "Vindication of Slavery--a IlebafF, 606; Negro Boat Songs-- 615; Uncle Tom discussed, 617; Another Sort, 620; A Carlylist, 631; Ele ments of Progress, North and South, 621 jRigoIet de BonDieu--Use of Claret --The Temperance Problem, 625; ria.nt.mg and Grazing, 62S-, Negro Cabins, 629; Positive Morality, A Secret Agent of Satan, 630 ; Buying the Spanish Vote, 631* ; Free Colored Slave-Owners, 632; Conversation, with a Free Ne gro, 634; Louisiana Lawyera, 637; Egyptians, 638; White Slaves, 640; Opclousas, 643; Germans, 64ii; Pleasant Retirement, 643; "Fights," G44 ; Theology and Morality, 645; A Creole Ball, 6'l!j; Court, 046 ; The Nigger Trade, 647; The Creoles, 648; Condition of their Slaves, 650; Planters of Louisiana and Farmers of Ne\v York compared, 652 ; Habits of the Planters, 652; Cuba, G5S; Visit to a Sugar Plantation, 656; Relation of Slaves and . Owner, G58 ; Treatment of Slaves, 659; Plantation Economy, 660; Sugar Cane, 663; Economy of Louisiana, 664; Cane Culture, 665; The Grinding Season, 667 ; Hard Work liked, 668 ; Manufacture of Sugar, 670; Acadiene, 673 ; Chicken Thieves, 674 ; Conversation on Slavery, 675 ; Conversation with a Slave about Abolitionism.. 677 ; Kxpensea of Plantations, 686 ; Condition of Free and Slave Laborers compared, 6S8; Slavery no Security against 712; Appendix, 717; Appendix A, 724. " Men are never so likely to settle a question rightly as when they discuss it freely."--Macaulay. " You have among you many a purchased slave, Which, like your asses, and your dogs, and mules, You iise in abject and in slavish parts, Because you bought them : " So do I answer you. The pound of flesh which I demand of him, Is dearly bought ; 'tis mine, and I will have it. If you deny me, fie upon your law !"-- Skylocfc. " The one idea ivhich History exhibits as evermore developing itself into greater distinctness, is the idea of humanity, the noble endeavor to throw down all barriers erected between men by prejudice and one-sided views, and by setting aside the distinctions of religion, country, and color, to treat the whole human race as one Brotherhood, having one great object--the pure development of our spiritual nature.''--Humboldfs Cosmos. OUR SLAVE STATES. CHAPTER I. INNS AND OUTS OF WASHINGTON. GATJSBY'S HOTEL, Doc. 10. To accomplish the purposes which hro Light me to Washing ton, it was necessary, on arriving here, to make arrangements to secure food and shelter while I remained. There are t\vo thousand of us visitors in Washington under a similar neces sity. There are a dozen or more persons who, for a consid eration, .undertake to provide what we want. Mr. Dexter is reported to he the heat of them, and really seems a very ohliging and honestly-disposed person. To Mr. Dexter, there fore, I commit myself. I commit myself hy inscribing my name in a liegister. Tive minutes after I have done, so, Clerk No. 4, whose attention I have heen uriahle to ohtain any sooner, suddenly catches the Register hy the corner, swings it round with a jerk, and throws a hieroglyphic scrawl at it, w3iich strikes near my name. Henceforth, I figure as Boarder No. 201, (or whatever it may he). Clerk No. 4 whistles (" Boarders, away ! "), and throws key, No. 201 upon the table. Turnkey No. -v> takes S O U fl SLAVE STATES. it, Mid me, and my traveling "bag, up several flights of stairs, along corridors and galleries, and finally consigns me to this little square cell. I have faith that there is a tight roof above the very much cracked ceiling; that the bed is clean ; and that I shall, byand-by, be summoned, along with hundreds of other persons, to p.'U'take, in grandly silent sobriety, of a very sumptuous dinner. Food and shelter. Therewith should a man be content. It "will enable me to accomplish ray purpose in coming to Washington, But my perverse nature will not be content : will be wishing things were otherwise. They say this uneasi ness--this passion for change--is a peculiarity of our diseased jSTorthern nature. The Southern man finds Providence in all that is : Satan in all that might be. That is good ; and, as I am going South, when I have accomplished my purposes at Washington, I v.'ill not here restrain the escape of my present di scoiitent. I have such a shockingly depraved nature that I wish the dinner vcas not going to be so grand. My idea is that, if it were not, Mr. Dexter would save moneys, -which I would like to have him expend in other ways. I wish he had more clerks, so that they would have time to be as polite to an unknown man as I see they are to John P. Hale ; and; at least, answer civil questions, when his guests ask them. I don't like such a fearful rush of business as there is down stairs. .T wish there were men enough to do the work quietly. I don't like these cracked and variegated walls ; and, though the roof may be tight. I don't like this threatening aspect of the ceiling. It should be kept for people of Damoclesian ambition: I am humble. INNS AND OUTS OF WA SHINGTON. 3 I am humble, and I am short, and soon curried; but I am not satisfied with a quarter of a yard of toweling, having an irregular vacancy in its centre, where I am liable to insert my head. I am not proud; but I had rather have something else, or nothing, than these three yards of ragged and faded quarter-ply carpeting. I also would like a curtain to the window, and I wish the glass were not so dusty, and that the sashes did not rattle so in their casements ; though, as there is no other ventilation, I suppose I ought not to complain, Of course not; hut it is confoundedly cold, as well as noisy. I don't like that "broken latch; I don't like this "broken chair ; I would prefer that this table were not so greasy in its appear ance ; I would rather the ashes and cinders, and the tobacco juice around the grate, had been removed before I was consigned to the cell. I wish that less of my two dollars and a half a day went to pay for game for the dinner, and the interest of the cost of the mirrc _d and mahogany for the public parlors, and of marble for the halls, and more of it for providing me with a private room, which should be more than a barely habitable cell, which should also be a little Lit tasteful, home-like, and comfortable. SERVANTS. I wish more of it was expended in servants' wages. Six times Z rang' the bell; three several times came three different Irish lads; entered, received my demand for a fire, and retired. I was writing, shiveringly, a full hour before the fire-man came. Now he has entered, bearing on his head a hod of coal and kindling1 wood, without knocking-. AM aged negro, more familiar and more indifferent to forms of subserviency than 4 OUB. SLAVE STATES. the Irish lads, very much bent, seemingly with infirmity, an expression of impotent anger in his face, and a look of weak ness, like a drunkard's. He does not look at me, but mutters unintelligibly. "What's that you say?" " Tink I can make a hundred fires at once ?" " I dont wTant to sit an hour waiting for a fire, after I have ordered one, and you must not let me again." " Kebber let cle old nigger have no ress--hundred gemmen tink I kin mak dair fires all de same minute; all get mad at an ole nigger; I ain't a goin to stan it--nebber get no ress--up all night--haint got nautin to eat nor drink dis blessed mornin-- hundred gemmen --" " That's not my business ; Mr. Dexter should have more serv ants." "So he ort ter, master, dat he had, one ole man ain't enough for all dis house, is it master 1? hundred gemmen --" " Stop--here's a quarter for you; now I want you to look out that I have a good fire, and keep the hearth clean in my room as long as I stay here. And when I send for you I want you to come immediately. Do you understand?" " I'le try, master--you jus look roun and line me when you want yer fire; I'll be roun somewhere. Ton got a newspaper, Sir, I ken take for a minit; I won't hurt it." I gave him one; and wondered what use he could put it to, that would not hurt it. He opened it to a folio, and spread it before the grate, so the draft held it in place, and it acted as a blower. I asked if there were no blowers'? "Ko." "But haven't you got any brush or shovel ?" I inquired, seeing him get clown upon his knees again and sweep the cinders and ashes INNS AND OUTS OF WA SHINGTON. 5 he had thrown upon the floor with the sleeve of his coat, and then take them up with Ks hands;--no, he said, his master did not give him such things. "Are yon a slave?" " Yes, sir." " Do yon "belong to Mr. Dexter T* "No, sir. he hires me of do man dat owns me. Don't you tink I'se too ole a man for to be knock roun at clis kind of work, massa?--hundred gemmen all want dair fires made de same min ute, and cans de old nigger cant do it all de same minute, ebbery one tinks dey's boun to scold him all de time; nebber no rest for him, no time." I know the olcl fellow lied somewhat, for I saw another fireman in Mr. B.'s room. Was that quarter a good investment, or should I have complained at the office ? No, they are too busy to listen to me, too busy, certainly, to make "better arrangements. It is time for me to call on Mr. S. ; the fire has gone out, leav ing a fine bituminous fragrance in the cell. I will "look round" for the fireman, as I travel the long road to the office, and, if I do not find him, leave an order., in writing, for a fire to be made before two o'clock. A MARYLAND FARM. WASHINGTON, Dec. 14th. Called on Mr. C., whose fine farm, from its vicinity to Washington, and its excellent management, as well as from, the hospitable habits of its owner, has a national rep\i tatiou. It is some two thousand acres in extent, and situated just without the District, in Maryland. The residence is in the midst of the farm, a quarter of a mile from the high road---the private approach being judiciously carried through large pastures which are divided only by slight, but close 6 OUR SLAVE STATES and well-secured, wire fences. The mansion is of "brick, and, as seen through the surro.nr.idmg trees, has somewhat the look of an old French chateau. The kept grounds are very limited, and in simple but quiet taste ; being surrounded only by wires= they merge, in effect, into the pastures. There is a fountain, an orna mental dove-cote, and ice-house, and the approach road, nicely graveled and rolled, comes up to the door with a fine sweep. I had dismounted and was standing before the door, when I heard myself loudly hailed from a distance. "Ef yer wants to see Master, sah, he's down thai'--to the new stable." I could see no one ; and when I was tired of holding my horse, I mounted, and rode on in search of the new stable. I found it without difficulty ; and in it Mr. and Mrs. G. "With them were a number of servants, one of whom now took my horse with alacrity. I was taken at once to look at a very fine herd of cows, and afterwards led upon a tramp over the farm, and did not get back to the house till dinner time. The new stable is moat admirably contrived for convenience, labor-saving, and economy of space. (Full and accurate descrip tions of it, with illustrations, have been given in several agricultu ral journals.) The cows are mainly thorough-bred Shorthorns, with a few imported Ayrshires and Alderneys, and some small black " natives." I have seldom seen a better lot of milkers ; they are kept in good condition, are brisk and healthy, docile and kind, soft and pliant of skin, and give milk up to the very eve of calving; milking being never interrupted for a clay. Near the time of calving the milk is given to the calves and pig's. The object is to obtain milk only, which is never converted into but ter or cheese, but sent immediately to town, and for this the INNS AND O IT T S OP \VA S III N G T O N. 7 Shorthorns are found to be the most profitable breed. Mr. O. believes that, for butter, the little Alderneys, from the peculiar rich ness of their milk, would be the most valuable. He is, probably, mistaken, though I remember that in Ireland the little black Kerry cow was found fully equal to the Ayrshire for butter, though giving much less milk. There are extensive bottom lands on the farm, subject to be flooded in freshets, on which the cows are mainly pas tured in summer. Indian corn is largely sown for fodder, and, during the driest season, the cows arc regularly soiled with it. These bottom lands were entirely covered with heavy wood, until, a fe\y years since, Mr. G- erected a steam saw-mill, and has lately been rapidly clearing them, and floating1 off the sawed timber to market by means of a small stream that rung through the farm. The low land is much of it drained, underdrains being made of rough boards of any desired width nailed together, so that a section is represented by the inverted letter j^. Such covered drains have lasted here twenty years without failing yet, but have only been tried where the now of water was constant throughout the year. The water collected by the drains can be, much of it, drawn into a reservoir, from which it is forced by a pump, driven by horse-power, to the market-garden, where it is distributed from several fountain-heads, by means of hose, and is found of great; value, especially for celery. The celery trenches are arranged in concentric circles, the water-head being in the center. The \vMer-closets and all the drainage of the house are turned to good accoimt in the same way. Mr. C. contemplates extending his water-pipes to some oi' his meadow lands. Wheat and hay 8 OTJXl SLAVE STATES. are tlie chief crops sold off the farm, and tlie amount of them produced is yearly increasing1. The two most interesting points of husbandry, to me, were the large and profitable use of guano and bones, and the great extent of turnip culture. Crops of one thousand and twelve hundred bushels of rnta baga to the acre have been frequent, and this year the whole crop of the farm is reckoned to be over thirty thousand bushels ; all to be fed out to the neat stock between this time and the nest pasture season. The soil is generally a red, stiff loam, with an occasional stratum, of coarse gravel, and, therefore, not the most favorable for turnip culture. The seed is always imported, Mr. G.'s experience, in this respect, agreeing with my own:--the linta baga undoubtedly degenerates in our climate, Bones, guano, and ashes are used in connection with yarddung for manure. The seed is sown from the middle to the last of July in drills, but not in ridg-es, in the English way. In both these respects, also, Mr. O. confirms the conclusions I have arrived at in the climate of New York; namely, that ridges are best dispensed with, and that it is "better to sow in the latter part of July than in June, as has been generally recommended in our books and periodicals. Ijast year, turnips sown on the 20th July were larger and finer than others, sown, on the same ground, on my farm, about the first of the month. This year I sowed in. August, and, by forcing with superphosphate--home manufac tured--and guano, obtained a line crop; but the season was unusually favorable. Mr. C. always secures a. supply of turnips that will allow him to give at least one bushel a day to every eow while in winter quarters. The turnips are sliced, slightly salted, and commonly mixed with fodder and meal. Mr. C. finds that salting the INNS AND OUTS OP WA SHINCrTON. 9 sliced turnip, twelve hours before it is fed, effectually prevents its communicating' any taste to the milk. This, so far as I know, is an original discovery of his, and is one of great value to dairy men. In certain English dairies the same result is obtained, -where the cows are fed on cabbages, by the expensive process of heat ing the milk to a certain temperature and then adding saltpetre. The wheat crop of this district has been immensely increased, by the use of guano, during the .last four years. On this farm it has been largely used for five years ; and land that had not been cultivated for forty years, and wliich bore only broom-sedge--a thin, worthless grass--by the application of two hundred weight of Peruvian guano, now yields thirty "bushels of \vlieat to an acre. Mr. C.'s practice of applying guano differs, in some particulars, from that commonly adopted here. After a deep plowing of land intended for wheat, he sows the seed and guano at the same time, and harrows both in. The common custom here is to plow in the guano, six or seven inches deep, in preparing the ground for wheat. I believe Mr. C.'s plan is the best. I have myself used guano on a variety of soils for several years with great success for wheat, and I may mention the practice I have adopted from the outset, and with which I am well satisfied. It strikes between the two systems I have mentioned, and I think is philosophically right. After preparing the ground with plow and harrow, I sow wheat and guano together, and plow them in with a gang-plow which covers to a depth, on an average, of three inches. Clover seed is sowed in the spring following the wheat-sowing, and. the year after the wheat is taken off, this--on the old sterile hills--grows luxuriantly, knee-high. It is left alone for two years, neither mown nor pastured; there it grows and there it 10 O XT K. S L A V E STATES. lies, keeping the ground moist and shady, and improving it on tlie Gurney principle. Mr. C. then manures with dung, bones, and guano, and with another crop of wheat lays this land down to grass. "What the ultimate effect of this system will be, it is yet too early to say-- but Mr. C. is pursuing- it with great confidence. SLAVE LABOR----FIRST IMPRESSIONS. Mr. C. is a large hereditary owner of slaves, "which, for ordinary field and stable-work, constitute his laboring force. He has employed several Irishmen for ditching, and for this work, and this alone, he thought he could use them to better advantage than negroes. He would not think of using Irishmen-for common farm-labor, and made light of their coming in competition with slaves. Negroes at hoeing and any steady field-work, he assured me, would " do two to their one;" but his main objection to employing Irishmen was derived from his experience of their unfaithfulness--they were dishonest, would not obey explicit directions about their work, and required more personal super vision than negroes. From, what he had heard and seen of Germans, he supposed they did better than Irish. He mentioned that there were several Germans who had come here as laboring men, and worked for wages several years, who had now got possession of small farms, and were reputed to be gettingrich.* He was disinclined to converse on the topic of slavery, and years since (with little 01- no tiling beyond their physical abilities to aid them), seated themselves down in a poor, miserable old field, and have,by their indue try, and means obtained by working round among the neighbors, effected a change which --I1 . A. CLOPPEK, (Montgomery Co.), Maryland, in Patent Of. Kept., 1851. INNS AND OTJTS OF WA S IIIK G T O TvT. HI I, therefore, made no inquiries about the condition and habits of his negroes, or his management of them. They seemed to live in small and rude log-cabins., scattered in different parts of tlio farm. Those I saw at work appeared to me to mo\ e very slowly and awkwardly, as did also those engaged in the stable. These, also, were very stupid and dilatory in executing any orders given to them, so that Mr. G. would frequently take the duty off thenhands into his own, rather than wait for them, or make them correct their "blunders : they were much, in these respects, like what our farmers call dumb Paddies--that is, Irishmen who do not readily understand the English language, and who are still weak and stiff from the cil'ects of the emigrating voyage. At the entrance-gate was a porter's lodge, and, as I approached, I saw a black face peeping at me from it, but, both when I entered and left, I was obliged to dismount and open the gate myself. Altogether, it struck me--slaves coming here as they naturally did in. direct comparison with free laborers, as commonly employed on my own and my neighbor's farms, in exactly" similar duties-- that they must be very difficult to direct efficiently, and that it must be very irksome and trying- to one's patience, to have to superintend their labor. MARKET-DAY'----NEGKOES AND LIVE STOCK. WASHINGTON, Dec. 16- Visiting the market-place, early on Tuesday morning, I found myself in the midst' of a throng of a very different character from any I have ever seen at the North. The majority of the people were negroes, and, taken as a whole, they appeared inferior in the expression of their face and less well-clothed than any collection of negroes I had ever seen before. All the negro characteris- tics were more clearly marked in each than they often are in any at the North. In their dress, language, manner, mo tions--all were distinguish able almost as much "by their color, from the white people who were distribvited among them, and engaged in the same occupations--chiefly selling poultry, vege tables, and small country-produce. The white men \vere, generally, a mean looking people, and but meanly dressed, but differently so from the negroes. Most of the produce was in small, rickety carts, drawn by the smallest, ugliest, leanest lot of oxen and horses that I ever saw. There was but one pair of horses in over a hundred that were tolera bly good--a remarkable proportion of them, were maimed hi some way. As for the oxen, I do not believe New England and New T"ovk together could produce a single yoke so poor as the best of them. The very trifling quantity of articles brought in and exposed for sale by most of the market-people was noticeable; a peck of potatoes, three launches of carrots, two cabbages, six eggs and a chicken, would be about the average stock in trade of all the dealers. Mr. I1 , said that an old negro woman once came to his door with a single Urge turkey, which she pressed him to buy. Struck with her fatigued appearance, he made some inquiries of her, and ascertained that she had been several days coming from home, had traveled mainly on foot, and had brought the turkey and nothing else with her. " Ole massa had to raise some money somehow, and he conld not sell an.yti.ng- else, so he tole me to catch the big- gobbler, and tote um down to Washington and see wot iTm would fotch.' 1 The prices of garden productions were high, compared even with New York. All the necessaries of life are very expensive in INNS AND OTJTS OF WASHINGTON. 13 "Washington'; great complaint is made of exorbitant rents, and building-lots are said to have risen in value several hundred per cent, "within five or six years. TliG population of the city is now over 50,000, and is increasing rapidly. There seems to be a deficiency of tradespeople, and I have no doubt the profits of retailers arc excessive. There is one cotton factory in the District of Columbia, employing one hundred and fifty hands, male and female; a small foundry ; a distillery; and two tanneries--all-not giving occupation to fifty men ; less than two hundred, altogether, oat of a resident popu lation of nearly 150,000, being- engaged in manufactures. Very few of the remainder are engaged in productive occupations. There is water-power near the city, superior to that of Lowell, of which, at present, I understand that no use at all is made. LAND AND LABOK IN THE DISTRICT. Laud may be purchased, within twenty miles of Washington, at from ten to twenty dollars an acre. Most of it has been once in cultivation, and, having been exhausted in raising tobacco, has been, for many years, abandoned, and is now covered by a forest growth. Several New "Forkers hare lately specu lated in the purchase of this sort of land, and, as there is a good market for wood, and the soil, by the decay of leaves upon it, and other natural causes, has been restored to moderate fertility, have made money by clearing and improving- it. By deep plowing and limeing, and the judicious use of manures, it Is made very productive; and, as equally cheap farms can hardly be found in any free State, in such proximity to so high markets for agricultural produce, as those of Washington and Alexandria, there are good inducements for a considerable 14 OUR SLAVE STATES. Northern irmnig-ration hither. It may not be long before a majority of the inhabitants will be opposed to Slavery, and desire its! abolition within the District. Indeed, when Mr. Seword proposed in the Senate to allow them to decide that matter, the advocates of "popular sovereignty" made haste to vote down the motion.. There are, already, more Irish and German laborers and servants than slaves, and, as many of the objections -which free laborers have to going further South, do not operate in "Wasliingtoiij the proportion of white laborers is every year increas ing'. The majority of servants, however, are now free negroes, which class constitutes one-fifth of the entire population. The slaves are one-fifteenth, but are mostly owned out of the District, and hired annually to those who require their services. In the assessment of taxable property, for 1853, the slaves, owned or hired in the District, were valued at three hundred thousand dollars. THE NEGROES OF WASHINGTON. The colored population voluntarily siistain several churches, schools, and mutual assistance and improvement societies, and there are evidently persons among them of no inconsiderable cultivation of mind. Among the Police Keports of the City newspapers, there was lately (April, 1855) an account of the apprehension of twenty-four "genteel colored men" (so they were described), who had been found by a watchman assembling privately in the evening, and been lodged in the watch-house. The object of their meeting appears to have been purely benevolent, and, when they were examined before a magistrate in the morning, no evidence was offered, nor does there seem, INNS ANX> OUTS OF "WASHINGTON". 15 to have been any suspicion that they had any criminal pur pose. On searching their persons, there were found a Bible, a volume of Seneca's Morals; Life in Earnest; the printed Constitution of a Society, the object of which was said to be "to relieve the sick, and kmy the decul;" and a subscription paper to purchase tJie freedom of ~Kliza Howard, a young woman, whom her owner was willing to sell at $650. I can think of nothing that would speak higher for the character of a "body of poor men,, servants and laborers, than to find, by chance, in their pockets, just such things as these. And I cannot value that man as a countryman, who does not feel intense humiliation and indignation, when he learns that such men may not be allowed to meet privately together, with such laudable motives, in. the capital city of the United States, without being subject to disgraceful punishment. "Washington, is, at this time, go,yerned by the Know Nothings, and the magistrate, in disposing of the case, was probably actuated by a well-founded dread of secret conspiracies, inquisitions, and persecutions. One of the prisoners, a slave named Joseph Jones, he ordered to be flogged; four others, called In the papers free men, and named John E. Bennett, Chester Taylor, George Jjee? and Aqulla Barton, "were sent to the Work-house, and the remainder, on paying costs of court, and fines, amount ing, in the aggregate, to one hundred and eleven dollars, were permitted to range loose again. Had this happened at Naples, and had the men been Pro testants, what would the Protestant world have called it 1 Had it happened at Havana, and the men been American citizens, enrolling offices for volunteers would have been instantly opened in New Orleans and New York. CHAPTER II. VIRGINIA. GLIMPSES BY RAIL-ROAD. DEC. 16th. From Washington to Bichmond, Virginia, by the regular great southern route--steamboat on the Potomac to Acquia Creek, arid thence direct "by rail. The boat makes 55 miles in 3J- hours, including two stoppages (12^- miles an hour); fare S2 (3-6 cents a mile). .Flat rail; distance, 75 miles; time, 5J hours (13 miles an hour); fare, $3 50 (4 cents a mile). ISTot more than a third of the country, visible on this route, VIRGINIA. 17 I should say, is cleared; tlie rest is mainly a pine forest. Of the cleared land, not more than one quarter seems to have been lately in cultivation; the rest is grown over with briars and bnshes, and a long-, coarse grass of no value. But two crops seem to be grown upon the cultivated land--maize and wheat.' The last is frequently sown in narrow beds and carefully surface-drained, and is looking remarkably well. A good many substantial old plantation mansions are to be seen; generally standing in a grove of white oaks, upon some hill-top. Most of them are constructed of wood, of two stories, painted white, and have, perhaps, a dozen rude-looking little log-cabins scattered around them, for the slaves. !N~ow and then, there is one of move pretension, with, a large porch or gallery in. front, like that of Mount Vei'non. These are generally in a heavy, compact style; less often, perhaps, than similar establishments at the North, in markedly bad, or vulgar taste; but seldom elegant, or even neat, and almost always in sad need of repairs. The more common sort of habitations of the white people are either of logs or loosely-boarded frames, a brick chimney vanning up outside, at one end: everything very slovenly and dirty about them. Swine, fox-hounds, and black and white children, are commonly lying very promiscuously together, on the ground about the doors. I am struck with the close co-habitation and association of black and white--negro women are carrying black and white babies together in their arms; black and white children are playing : together (not going to school together); black and white faces arc constantly, thrust together out of the doors, to see the train go by. 18 OUR SJLAVE STATES. A fine-looking', well-dressed, and well-behaved colored young man sat, together with a white man, on a seat in the cars. I suppose the man was his master; hut be was much the loss like a gentleman, of the two. The rail-road company advertise to take colored people only in second class trains; but servants seem to go with their masters everywhere. ' Once, to-day, seeing a lady entering the car at a way-station, with a family behind her, and that she was looking abont to find a place where they could be seated together, I rose, and offered her my seat, which had several vacancies around it. She accepted it, without thanking me, and immediately installed in it a stout negro woman; took the adjoining seat herself, and seated the rest of her party before her. It consisted of a white girl, probably her daughter, and a bright and very pretty mulatto girl. They all talked and laughed together, and the girls munched confectionery out of the same paper, with a familiarity and closeness of intimacy that would have been noticed with astonishment, if not with manifest displeasure, in almost any chance company at the North. When the negro is definitely a slave, it would seem that the alleged natural antipathy of the white race to associate with him is lost. I am surprised at the number of fine-looking- rawlattoes, or nearly white colored persons, that I see. The majority of those with whom I have come personally in contact are such. I fancy I see a peculiar expression among these--a contraction of the eyebrows and tightening of the lips--a spying, secretive, and counsel-keeping expression. But the great mass, as they are seen at work, under overseers, in the fields, appear very dull, idiotic, and brute-like; and it requires an effort to appreciate that they are, very much more VIRGINIA. 19 than the beasts they drive, our brethren---a part of ourselves. They are very ragged, and tlie women, especially, wlio work in. the field with the men, with no apparent distinction in their labor, disgustingly dirty. They seem to move very awkwardly, slowly, and undecidedly, and almost invariably stop their work while the train is passing-. One tannery and two oi" three saw-mills afforded the only indications I saw, in seventy-five miles of this old country-- settled before any part of Massachusetts--of any industrial occupation other than corn and wheat culture, and fire-wood chopping. At Fredericksburg we passed through the streets of a rather busy, poorly-built town; but, altogether, the country seen from the rail-road, bore less signs of an active and prospering; people than any I ever traveled through before, for an equal distance. RICHMOND, AT A GLATSCE. Biclnnond, at a glance from adjacent high ground, through a dull cloud of "bituminous smoke, upon a lowering winter's day, has a very picturesque appearance, and I was reminded of the sensation produced by a similar coup d'aiil of Edinburg. It is somewhat similarly situated upon and among some considerable hills, "but the moment it is examined at all in detail, there is but one spot, in the whole picture, upon which the eye is at all attracted to rest. This is the Capitol, an imposing Grecian edifice, standing alone, and finely placed on open and elevated ground, in the center of the town. It was bnilt soon after the Revolution, and the model was obtained by Mr. Jefferson, then Minister to France, fvom the Malson Carree. A considerable part of the town, which contains a population QO OUR SLAVE STATES. of 28,000, Is compactly and somewhat substantially built, but is without any pretensions to architectural merit, except in a few modern private mansions. Tlio streets are not paved, and but few of them are provided with side-walks other than of earth or gravel. The town is lighted vfith gas, and furnished with excel lent wrater by an aqueduct, TUB CAPITOL. On a closer view of the Capitol, a bold deviation from the Grecian model Is very noticeable. The southern portico Is sustained upon a very high blank wall, and is as inaccessible from the exterior as If it had been 131 tended to fortify the edifice from all ingress other than by scaling-ladders. On coming round to the ivest side, however, which is without a colonnade, a grand entrance, reached by a heavy buttress of stone steps, is found. This incongruity diminishes, in. some degree, the usual inconveni ence of the Greek temple for modern public purposes, for it gives speedy access to a small central rotunda, out of which doors open into the legislative halls and offices. THE "PUBLIC GTJAKD," AND "WHAT IT MEANS. If the walling- up of the legitimate entrance has caused the impression, in a "stranger, that he is being led to a prison or fortress, instead of the placo for transacting the public "business of a free State by its chosen paid agents, it is not removed when, on approaching this side door, he sees before it an armed sentinel--a meek-looking man In a livery of many colors, em barrassed with a bright bayonetted firelock, which he hugs gently, as though the cold iron, this frosty day, chilled his arm. VIROIKTIA. ^1 He belongs to the Public GKxard of Virginia, I am told; a com pany of a liundred men (more or less), enlisted under an Act of the State, passed in 1801, after a rebellion of the colored people, who, under one '' General Gabriel," attempted to take the town, in hopes to gain the means of securing their freedom. Having been betrayed by a traitor, as insurgent slaves almost always are, they were met, on their approach, by a large body of well-armed militia, hastily called out by the Governor. For this, being armed only with scythe-blades, they were unprepared, and immediately dispersed. " General Gabriel" and the other leaders, one after another, were captured, tried, and hanged, the militia in strong force guarding them to execution. Since then, a disciplined guard, hearing the warning motto, "Sic semper tyrannisf* has been kept constantly under arms in the capital, and no man can enter the legislative temple of Virginia without being reminded that "Eternal vigilance is the price of------." The gentleman who gave me the substance of this information, spoke of the Guard with an admiring and gratulatory tone, as "our little army." "But how is that?" I inquired; "does not our federal Constitution require that no State shall keep troops in time of peace? Is not your little army unconstitutional?" I could get no satisfactory reply; I fear it was hardly in good taste, under the circumstances, to make such" an inquiry of a Virginia democrat. PRETENSE AND FAESEttOSY. It was not till I had passed the guard, unchallenged, and stood at the door-way., that I perceived that the imposing edi fice, as I had thought it at a distance, was nothing "but a cheap * " So ever to tyrants," the motto on the seal of Virginia. 22 - O U It, SLAV!:; S T A T 13 S . stuccoed building; nor would anything short of test "by touch, have convinced me that the great state of Virginia would have "been so long content with such a parsimonious pretense of dig nity as is found in imitation granite and imitation marble. There is an instance of parsimony, without pretense, in Ttich- ' mond, which Ruskm, himself, if he were a traveler, could not he expected to applaud. The rail-road company which brings the traveler from Washington, so far from being open to the criticism of having provided edifices of a style of architecture only fitted for palaces, instead of a hall suited to conflicts with hackneycoachmen, actually has no sort of stationary accommodations for them at all, but sets them, down, rain or shine, in the middle of one of the main streets. The adjoining hucksteries, barbers'shops, and bar-rooms, are evidently all the better patronized for this fine simplicity; but I should doubt if the rail-road stock would be much advanced in value by it, THE MODEL AMERICAN. In the rotunda of the Capitol stands Houdon's statue of Wash ington. It was modeled from life, and is said to present the truest similitude of the American Great jtfan that is retained for posterity. The face has a lofty, serene, slightly saddened expression, as that of a strong, sensible man loaded, Imt not oveivbiirdened, with cares and anxiety. A self-reliant, brave, able soul, with deep but subdued sympathies, comprehending great duties, calmly and confidently prepared to perform them. There is very little like a king, or a clergyman, or any other professional character-actor in it. In most of the portraits of Washington, he looks as if lie were a great tragedian, or a high-priest; but this is a face that would satisfy and encourage V 1KGINI-A, S3 one in the engine-driver of a lightning' train, or the officer of the deck in a fog off Gape Kace ; far-seeing-., vigilant and fervid, but composed and perfectly controlled--the face of a man, wherever yon foimd him--as a sailor, or a schoolmaster, or a judge, or a general--that you could depend upon to perform his undertakings conscientiously. The figure is not good; it struts, and lias an air of nonchalance and nngentlemanly assump tion. This was the fashion of the age, however, and education may have given it to the man, though his character, as seen with certainty in his face, is far superior to it. PUBLIC GKOUNDS----THE HBD CEDAR. The grounds a'bout the Capitol are naturally admirable, and have lately "been improved with neatness and taste. Their "beauty and interest would be greatly increased if more of the fine native trees and shrubs of Virginia, particularly the holly and the ever green magnolias, were planted in them, I noticed these., as well aa the Irish and palmated ivy, growing, with great vigor and beauty, in the private gardens of the town. On some high, sterile lands, of which there are several thousand acres, uninclosed and uncultivated, near the town, I saw a group of exceedingly "beauti ful trees, having' the lively green and all the lightness, graceful ness and beauty of foliage, in the Winter, of the finest deciduous trees. I could not believe, until I came near them, tliat they were what I found them to be--our common red cedar (Juni- perus Virginia-no,). I have frequently noticed that the "beauty of this tree is greatly affected by the soil it stands in; in certain localities, on the Hudson river, for instance, and in the lower part of New Jersey, it grows in a perfectly dense, conical, cypress- 1 like form. These, on the other hand, were square-headed, dense, 24 OTJR SLAVE STATES. flattened at the top, like the cedar of Lebanon, and with a, light and slightly drooping spray, deliciously delicate and graceful, where it cut tlie light. They stood in a soil of small quartz gravel, slightly bound ivJtli red clay. In a soil of similar appear ance at the North, cedai-s arc usually thin., stiff, shabby,, and dull in color. I notice that they are generally finer here, tnan we often see them tinder the test of circumstances; and I presume they are better suited in climate, A KEGKO FUNEEAT,. On a Sunday afternoon I met a negro funeral procession, and followed after it to the place of burial. There was a decent hearse, of tlie usual style, drawn by two horses; six hackney coaches followed it, and six well-dressed men, mounted on hand some saddle-horses, and riding them well, rode in the rear of these. Twenty or thirty men and women were also walking together with the procession, on the side-walk. Among1 all there was not a white person. Passing out into the country, a little beyond the principal cemetery of the city (a neat, rural ground, well filled with monu ments and evergreens), the hearse halted at a desolate place, where n, dozen colored people were already engaged heaping the earth over the grave of a child, and singing a wild kind of chant. Another grave was already dug, immediately adjoining that of the child, both being near the foot of a hill, in a crumbling bank--the ground below being already occupied, and tlie graves advancing in irregular terraces up the hill-side--an arrangement which facilitated labor. The newy coiners, setting the coffin--which was neatly made of stained pine--upon the ground, joined in the labor and the sing- VIRGINIA. 25 ing,, -\vith the preceding party, until a small mound of earth was made over the grave of the child. When this -was completed, one of those who had been handling a .spade, sighed deeply and said, " Lord Jesus have marcy on us--now! you Jim--you / zee' yar; you jes lay clat yav shovel cross dat grave--so fash-- dah--yes, dat's rig-lit." A shovel and a- hoe-handle having been laid across the unfilled grave, the coffin was brought arid laid upon them, as on a trestle; after which, lines were passed under it, by which it was lowered to the bottom. Most of the company were of a very poor appearance, rude and unintelligent, but there were several neatly-dressed and very good-looking men. One of these now stepped to the head of the grave, and, after a few sentences of prayer, held, a handkerchief before him as if it were a book, and pronounced a short exhorta tion, as if _he were reading from it. His manner was earnest, and the tone of his voice -solemn and impressive, except that, occasionally, it would break into a shout or kind of howl at the close of a long sentence. I noticed several women near him, weeping, and one sobbing intensely. I \v*as deeply influenced myself by the unaffected feeling, in connection with the simplieitv, natural, rude truthfulness, and, absence of all attempt at formal decorum in the crowd. I never in my life, however, heard such ludicrous language as was sometimes uttered by the speaker. ITrcquently I could not guess the idea he was intending- to express. Some times it was evident that lie was trying to repeat phrases that lie had heard used before, on similar occasions, "but which lie made absurd by some interpolation or distortion of a word; 2 OUR S X, A V IS STATES. tliuH, ' ; "We do not see the end here I oh no, my friends! tliere will be a piiii-ijlcation of this body !" the context failing- to indicate whether he meant purification or putrefaction, and leaving it doubtful if he attached any definite meaning to the word himself. He quoted from the Bible several times, several times from hymns, always introducing the latter "with " in the words of the poet, my brethren;" lie once- used the same form, before a verse from the JTeiv Testament, and ones qualified his citation by saying, "I Relievo the Bible saj-s that;" in which, he was right, having repeated words o Job. He concluded by throwing- a, liarulfal of earth on the coffin, repeating- the usual words, slightly disarranged, and then took a shovel, and, with the aid of six or seven others, proceeded very rapidly to fill the grave. Another man. had, in the mean time, stepped into the place he had first occupied at the head of the grave; an old negro, with a very singularly distorted face, who raised a hymn, which soon became a confused chant--the leader singing a few words alone, and the company then either repeating them after him or making a response to them, in the manner of sailors heaving at the windlass. I could understand but very few of the words. The music was wild and barbarous, but not without a plaintive melody. A new leader took the place of the old man, when his breath gave out (he had sung very hard, with much bending of the body and gesticulation), and continued until the grave was filled, and a. mound, raised over it. A man had, in the mean time, gone into a ravine near by, and now returned with two small branches, hung with withered leaves, that he had broken off a beech tree ; these were placed upright, jae at the head, the other at the foot VIRGINIA. 37 of the grave. A few sentences of prayer wore then repeated in a low voice by one of the company, arid all dispersed. No one seemed to notice my presence at all. There were about fifty colored people in the assembly, and but one other white man besides myself. This man lounged against the fence, outside the crowd, an apparently Indifferent spectator, and I judged he was a police officer,, or some one procured to witness the funeral, in compliance with the law which requires that" a white man shall always be present at any meeting, for religious exercises, of the negroes, to destroy the opportunity of their conspiring to gain their freedom. DRESS OF THE SLAVES. The greater part of the colored people, on Sunday, seemed to be dressed in the cast-off fine clothes of the white people, received, I suppose, as presents, or purchased of the Jews, whose shops show that there must be considerable importation of such articles, probably from the North, as there is from England into Ireland. Indeed, the lowest class, especially among the younger, remind me much, by their dress, of the " lads" of Donnybrook ; and when the funeral procession came to its destination, there was a scene precisely like that you- may see every day in Sackville-street, Dublin,--a dozen boys in ragged clothes, originally made for tall men, and rather folded round their bodies than worn, striving who should hold the horses of the gentlemen when they dismounted to attend the interment of the body. Many, who had probably come in from the farms near the town, wore clothing1 of coarse gray " negro-cloth," that appeared as if made by contract, without regard to the size of the particular individual to whom it had been allotted, like penitentiary uniforms, A few had a better suit 28 OUR SLAVE STATES. of coarse blue cloth, expressly made for them evidently, for " Sunday clothes." DANfolES. Some were dressed with laughably foppish extravagance, and a great many in clothing of the most expensive materials, and in the latest style of fashion. In what I suppose to he the fashionable streets, there were many more well-dressed and highly-dressed colored people than white, and among this dark gentry the finest French cloths, embroidered waistcoats, patentleather shoes, resplendent brooches, silk hats, kid gloves, and eau de milkfleurs, were quite as common as among the New York " drygoods clerks," in their Sunday promenades, in Broadway. Nor was the fairer, or rather the softer sex, at all left in the shade of this splendor. Many of the colored ladies were dressed not only expensively, but with good taste and effect, after the latest Parisian mode. Many of them were quite attractive in appear ance, and some would have produced a decided sensation in any European drawing-room. Their walk and carriage was more often stylish and graceful than that of the white ladies who were out. About one quarter seemed to me to have lost all distinguishingly African peculiarity of feature, and to have acquired, in place of it, a good deal of that voluptuousness of expression which characterizes many of the women of the south of Europe. I was especially surprised to notice the frequency of thin, aquiline noses. WHITE AND BLACK. IN THE STREETS. There was no indication of their belonging to a subject race, but that they invariably gave the way to the white people they met. Once, when two of them, engaged in conversation and VIRGINIA. 29 looking at each other, had not noticed his approach, I saw a Virginia gentleman lift his cane and push a woman aside with it. In the evening I saw three rowdies, arm-in-arm, taking the whole of the sidewalk, hustle a hlack man off1 it, giving him a blow, as they* passed, that sent him staggering into the middle of the street. As he recovered himself he began to call out to, and threaten them. Perhaps he saw me stop, and thought I should support him, as I was certainly inclined to: " can't you find anything else to do than to be knockin' quiet people round! You jus' come back here, will you ? Here, you! dorft care if you is white. You jus' come back here and I'll teach you how to behave--knockin' people round!--don't care if I does hab to go to der watch-house." They passed on without noticing him further, only laughing jeeiingly--and he continued: " You come back here and I'll make you laugh; you is jus' three white nigger cowards, dat's what you be." I observe, in the newspapers, complaints of growing insolence and insubordination among the negroes, arising, it is thought, from too many privileges being permitted them by their masters, and from too merciful administration of the police laws with regard to them. Except in this instance, however, I have seen not the slightest evidence of any independent manliness on the part of the negroes towards the whites. As far as I have yet observed, they are treated very kindly and even generously as servants, but their manner to white people is invariably either sullen, jocose, or fawning. * The -pronunciation and dialect of the negroes, here, is gene rally much more idiomatic and peculiar than with us. As I write, I hear a man shouting, slowly and deliberately, meaning to say there: dah ! dah ! DAH ! . 30 OUR SLAVE STATES. SLAVES AS MERCHANDISE. Yesterday morning-, during- a cold, sleety storm, against which. I was struggling, with my umbrella, to the post office, I met a comfortably-dressed negro leading three others by a rope; the first \vas a middle-aged man; the second a girl of, perhaps, twenty; and. the last a boy, considerably younger. The arms of all three were secured, before them, with hand-cuffs, and the rope by which they were led passed from one to another; being made fast at each pair of hand-cuffs. They were thinly clad, the girl especially so, having only an old ragged handkerchief around her neck, over a common calico dress, and another handkerchief twisted around her head. They were dripping wet, and icicles were forming, at the time, on the awning bars. The boy looked most dolefully, and the girl was turning around, with a very angry face, and shouting, " O pshaw! Shut up!" "What are they'?" said I, to a white man, who had also stopped, for a moment, to look at them. " What's he going to do with them?" " Come in a canal boat, I reckon : sent down here to he sold. ----That ar's a likely gall." Our ways lay together, and I asked further explanation. He informed me that the negro-dealers had confidential servants always in attendance, on the arrival of the rail-road trains and canal packets, to take any negroes, that might have come, consigned to them, and bring them to their marts. Nearly opposite the post office, was another singular group of negroes. They were all men and boys, and each carried a coarse, white blanket, drawn together at the corners so as to hold some- articles ; probably, extra clothes. They stood in a VIRGINIA. 31 row, in lounging attitudes, and some of them, again, were quarreling, or reproving one another. A villainous-looking white man stood in front of them. Presently, a stout, respectable man, dressed in black according to the custom, and without any overcoat or umbrella, but with a large, golden-headed walkingstick, came out of the door of an office, and, without saying1 a word, walked briskly up the street; the negroes immediately followed, in file; the other white man bringing up the real'. They wei-e slaves that had been sent into the town to be hired out as servants or factory hands. The gentleman in black was, probably, the broker in the business. Near .the post office, opposite a large livery and sale stable^ I turned into a short, broad stx'eet, in which were a number of establishments, the signs on which indicated that they were occupied by "Slave Dealers," and that "Slaves, for Sale or to Hire," were to be found within them. They were much like Intelligence Offices, being large rooms partly occupied by ranges of forms, on which sat a few comfortably and neatly clad negroes, who appeared perfectly cheerful; each grinning obsequi ously, but with a manifest interest or anxiety, when I fixed my eye on them for a moment. In Chambers' Journal for October, 1853, there is an account of the Richmond slave marts, and the manner of conducting business in them, so graphic and evidently truthful that I omit any further narration of my own observations, to make room for it. I do this, notwithstanding its length, because I did not happen to witness, during fourteen months that I spent in the Slave States, any sale of negroes by auction. This must not be taken as an. indication that negro auctions are not of frequent occurrence (I did not, so far as I now 83 OUR S L A V K STATES. recollect, witness the sale of anything1 else, at auction, at the South). I saw negroes advertised to be sold at auction, very frequently. " The exposure of ordinary goods in a store is not more open to the public than are the sales of slaves in Richmond. By consulting the local newspapers, I learned that the sales take place by auction every morning in the offices of certain brokers, wlio, as I understood by the terms of their advertisements, purchased or received slaves for sale on commission. if Where tue street was in winch the brokers conducted their busi ness, I did not know -, but the discovery was easily made. Kambling down the main street in the city, I found that the subject of my " search was a narrow and short thoroughfare, turning off to the left, and terminating in a similar cross thoroughfare. Both streets, lined with brick-houses, were dull and silent. There was not a person to whom I could put a question. Looking about, I observed the office of a com mission-age iit, and into it I stepped. Conceive the idea of a large shop with two windows, and a door between ; no shelving or counters inside ; the interior a spacious, dismal apartment, not well swept; the only furniture a desk at one of the windows, and a bench at one sides of the shop, three feet high, with two steps to It from the floor. I Hay, conceive the idea of this dismal-looking place, . with nobody in it but three negro children, who, as I entered, were playing at auctioneering- each other. An intensely black little negro, of four or five years of age, was standing on the bench, or block, as it is called, with an. equally black girl, about a year younger, by his side, whom he was pretending to sell by bids to another black child, who was rolling aboxit the floor, " jly appearance did not interrupt the merriment. The little auctioneer continued his mimic play, and appeared to enjoy the joke of selling the girl, who stood demurely by bis side, " 'Fifty dolltt for de gal--fifty dolla--fifty dolla--I sell (Us here fine gal for fifty dolla,' was uttered with extraordmai-y volubility by the woolly-beaded urchin, accompanied, with appropriate gestures, in imitation, doubtless of the scenes he had seen enacted daily in the spot. -I spoke a few words to tho little creatures, but was scarcely understood ; and the fun went on as if I had not been pves- VIRGINIA. 33 ent: so I left them, happy in rehearsing what -was likely soon to be their own fate. "At another office of a similar character, on the opposite side of the street, I was more successful. Here, on inquiry. I was respect fully informed, by a person in attendance, that the sale would take place the following morning at half-past nine o'clock. " Next day I set out accordingly, after breakfast, for the scene of operations, in which there was now a little more life. Two or three persons "were lounging about, smoking- cigars ; and, looking along . the street, I observed that three red flags were projected from the doors of those offices in which sales were to occur. On each flag was pinned a piece of paper, notifying the articles to be sold, The number of lots was not great. On the first was the following an nouncement:--' Will be sold this morning, at half-past nine o'clock, a Man and a Boy.' ' : It was already the appointed hour ; but as no company had as sembled, I entered and took a seat by the fire. The office, provided with a 'fe-.T deal forms arid chairs, B, clesk at one of the windows, and a block accessible by a few steps, was tenantless, save by a gentle man, who was arranging papers at the desk, and to whom I had ad dressed myself on the previous evening. Minute after minute passed, and still nobody entered. There was clearly no hurry in going to business. I felt almost like an intruder, and had formed the resolu tion of departing, in order to look into the other offices, when the per son referred to left his desk, and came and seated himself opposite to me at the fire. " ' You are an Englishman,' said he, looking- me steadily in tho face ; ' do you want to purchase ?' " ' Yes,' I replied, ' I am an Englishman ; but I do not intend to purchase. I am traveling about for infoimation, and I shall feel obliged by your letting me know the prices at which negro servants are sold.' " ' I will do so with much pleasure,' was the answer; ' do you mean field-hands or house-servants 2' " ' All kinds,' I replied ; ' I wish to get all the information I can.* "With much politeness, the gentleman stepped to his desk, and began to draw up a note of prices. This, however, seemed to re quire careful consideration; and while the note was preparing-, a lanky person, in a wide-awako hat, and chewing tobacco, entered, 34 OUK SLAVE STATES. and took the chair just vacated. He had scarcely seated himself, when, on looking towards the door, I observed the subjects of sale-- the man and boy indicated by the paper on the red flag--enter to gether, and quietly walk to a form at tho back of the shop, whence, as the day was chilly, they edged themselves towards the fire, in the corner where-1 was seated. I was now between the two parties-- the white man on the right, and the old and young negro on the left--and I waited to see what would take place. " The sight of the negroes at once attracted the attention of Wide awake. Chewing with vigor, he fcept keenly eying the pair, as if to see what they were good for. Under this searching gaze, the man and boy were a little abashed, but said nothing. Their appearance had little of the repulsiveness we are apt to associate with the idea of slaves. They were dressed in a gray woolen coat, pants, and waistcoat, colored cotton neckcloths, clean shirts, coarse woolen stockings, and stout shoes. The man wore a black hat; the boy was bareheaded. Moved by a sudden impulse, Wide-awake left his seat, and rounding the back of my chair, began to grasp at the man's arms, as if to feel their muscular capacity. He then examined his hands and fingers ; and, last of all, told him to open his mouth and show his teeth, which he did in a submissive manner. Having finished these examinations,- Wide-a\vake resumed his seat, and chewed on in silence as before. " I thought it was but fair that I should now have my turn of in vestigation, and accordingly asked the elder negro what was his age. He said he did not know. I next inquired how old the boy was. He said he was seven years of age. On asking the man if the boy was his son, he said he was not--lie was his cousin. I was going into other particulars, when the office-keeper approached, and hand ed me the note he had been preparing ; at the same time making the observation that the market was dull at present, and that there never could be a more favorable opportunity of buying. I thanked him for the trouble which he had taken; and now submit a copy of his price-current: Best Men, IS to 25 years old, . . Fair do. do. do., . . Boys, 5 feet, ..... J>o., -4 feet S inches, . . . Do., 4 feet 5 inches, .... 1200 to 1300 dollars. . 950 to 1050 " 850 to 950 " . 700 to 800 " 500 to 600 " VIROINIA. 35 Boys, 4 feet, Young Women, Girls, j feoi, Do., 4 feet 9 in Do., 4 feet, " Leaving- this document for future consideration, I pass on to a, history of the day's proceedings. It was now ten minutes to ten o'clock, and Wide-awake mid I being alike tired of waiting-, we went off in Iy belief is, that none of the parties felt deeplr on the subject, or at least that any distress they experienced was but momentary--soon passed away, and was forgotten. One of my reasons for this opin ion rests oil a trifling incident which occurred. While waiting for the commencement of the sale, one of the gentlemen, present amused himself with a pointer-dog, which, at command, stood on Us hindlegs, and took pieces of bread from his pocket. Tliese tricks great ly entertained the row of negroes, old and young; and the poor wo man, whose heart three minutes before was almost broken, now laughed as heartily as any one. " ' Sale is going to commence--this way, gentlemen,' cried a man at the door to a number of loungers outside ; and all having assem bled, the mulatto assistant led the woman and her children to the block, which he helped lier to motmt. There she stood with her in fant at the breast, and one of her girls at each side- The auction eer, a handsome, gentlemanly personage, took his .place, with one foot on an old deal chair with a broken back, and the other raised on the somewhat more elevated block. It was a striking scene. " ' Well, gentlemen,' began the salesman, 'here is a coital wo man and her three children, all in good health--what do you say for them 1 Give me an offer. (Nobody speaks.) I put up the whole lot at 850 dollars--850 dollars--850 dollars (speaking very fast) -- 850 dollars. Will no one advance upon that ? A very extraordi nary bargain, gentlemen. A fine, healthy baby. Hold it up. (Mu latto goes np the first step of the block; takes the baby from the woman's breast, and holds it aloft with one hand, so as to show that it was a veritable sucking baby.) That will do. A woman, still young, and three children, all for 850 dollars. An advance, if you please, gentlemen. (A voice bids 8GO.) Thank you, sir, 860; any one bids more ? (A second voice says, 870 ; and so on the bidding goes as far as 890 dollars, when It stops.) That won't do, gentle men. I cannot take such a, low pi-ice. (After a pause, addressing the mulatto) : She may go down.' Down from the block the woman 38 OUR SLAVE STATES. and her children were therefore conducted by the assistant, and, as if nothing had occurred, they calmly resumed their seats by the stove. " The next lot brought forward was one of the men. The mulat to, beckoning to him with his hand, requested him to come behind a canvas screen, of two leaves, which was standing near the back window. The man placidly rose, and having been placed behind the screen, was ordered to take off his clothes, which he did without a word or look of remonstrance. About a dozen gentlemen crowded to the spot while the poor fellow was stripping himself, and as soon as he stood on the floor, bare from top to toe, a most rigorous scru tiny of his person was instituted. The clear black skin, back and front, was viewed all over for sores from disease ; and there was no part of his body left uimsamined. The man was told to open and shut Iiis hands, asked if he could pick cotton, and every tooth in his head was scrupulously looked at. The investigation being at an end, he was ordered to dress liimself; and haying done so, was re quested to walk to the block. The ceremony of offering him for competition was gone through as before, hut no one would bid. The other two men, after under going similar examinations behind the screen, were also put up, but witli the same result. Nobody would bid for them, and they were all sent back to their seats. It seemed as if the company had conypirod not to buy anything that day. Probably some imperfections had bcen^detected in the personal qualities of the negroes. Be this as it may, the auctioneer, perhaps a little out of temper from his want of success, walked off to his desk, and the affair was so far at an end. " 'This way, gentlemen--this way !' was heard from a voice out side, and the company immediately hived off to the second estab lishment. At tliis oface there was a young woman, and also a man, for sale. The woman was put up first at 500 dollars ; and possess ing some reeommendable qualities, the bidding for her was run as high as 710 dollars, at which she was knocked down to a purchaser. The man, after the customary examination behind the screen, was put up at 700 dollars ; but a small imperfection having been ob served in his person, no one would bid for him ; and he was ordered down. " * This way, gentlemen, this way--down the street, if you please ! VIRGINIA. 39 was now shouted by a person in the employment of the iir^t firm, to whose office all very willingly adjourned--one migratory company, it will be perceived, serving all the slave-auctions in the place. Mingling in the crowd, I went to see what should bo the fate of the man and boy, with whom I had already had some communication. " There the paii", the two cousins, sat by the fire, just where I had left them an hour ago. The boy was put up first. " ' Come along, my man---jump up ; there's a good boy!' said one of the partners, a bulky and respectable-looking person, with a gold chain and bunch of seals ; at the same time getting on the block. With alacrity the little fellow came forward, and, mounting the steps, stood by his side. The forms in front were filled by the company ; and as I seated myself, I found that my old companion, "Wide-awake, was close at hand, still chewing and spitting at a great rate. " ' Now, gentlemen,' said the auctioneer, putting his hand on the shoulder of the boy, ' here is a very fine boy, seven years of age, warranted sound--what do you say for him ? I put him up at 500 dollars--500 dollars (speaking quick, his right hand raised up, and coming clown on the open palm of his left)--500 dollars. Any one say more than 500 dollars ? {560 is bid.) 5GO dollars. Nonsense ! Just look at him. See how high he is. (He draws the lot in front of him, and shows that the little fellow's head comes up to his breast.) You see he is a fine, tall, healthy boy. Look at his hands.' "Several step forward, and cause the boy to open and shut his hands--the flexibility of the small fingers, black on the one side, and whitish on the other, being well looked to. The hands, and also the mouth, having given satisfaction, an advance is made to 570, then to 580 dollars. " ' Gentlemen, that is a very poor price for a boy of this size. (Addressing the lot)--G-o clown, my boy, and'show them how you can run.' " The boy, seemingly happy to do as he was bid, went down from the block, and ran smartly across the floor several times ; the eyes of every one in the room following him. "'Now that will do. G-et up again, (Boy mounts tlie block, the steps being rather deep for his short legs; but the auctioneer kindly lends him a hand.) Come, gentleman, you see this is a first- 40 017R S I., A V E ST-A.TES. rate lot. (590--600--610--G20--630 dollars are bid.) I will sell him for 630 dollars. (Right hand coming flown on left.) Last call. 630 dollars, once--630 dollars, twice. (A pause ; hand sinks.) gone !' " The boy having- descended, the man was desired to come for ward ; and after the -usual scrutiny behind a screen, lie took his place on the block. "'Well, now, gentlemen,' said the auctioneer, ' here is a right prime lot. Look at this man; strong, healthy, able-bodied; could not be a better hand for field-work. He can drive a wagon, or any thing. What do you say for him? I offer the man at the low price of 800 dollars--he is well worth 1200 dollars. Come, make an ad vance, if you please. 800 dollars said for the man (a bid), thank you; 810 dollars--810 dollars--810 dollars (several bids)--820-- 830--850--860--going at 8GO--going. Gentlemen, this is far below his value. A strong-boned man, fit for any kind of heavy work. Just take a look at him. (Addressing the lot) : "Walk down. Lot dismounts, and walks from one side of the shop to the other. When about to rcascend the block, a gentleman, who is smoking a cigar, examines his mouth with his fingers. Lot resumes his place,} Pray, gentlemen, be quick (continues the auctioneer) , I must sell him, and 860 dollars are only bid for the man--860 dollars. (A fresh run of bids to 945 dollars.) 945 dollars, once, 945 dollars, twice (look ing slowly round, to see if all were done), 945 dollars, going--going --(hand drops)--gone !' " Such were a forenoon's experiences in the slave-market of Rich mond. Everything is described precisely as it occurred, without passion or prejudice. Tt would not have been difficult to be senti mental on a subject which appeals so strongly to the feelings ; but I have preferred telling the simple truth. In a subsequent chapter, I Bhall endeavor to offer some general views of slavery in Its social and political relations. "W. C." A JA3ISS KITEK FARM. This morning I visited a farm, some account of which will give a good idea of the more advanced mode of agriculture in Eastern Yirg-inia. It is situated on the bank of James River, VIRGINIA. 41 and has ready access, by water or land-carriage, to the to\vn of Kichmond.- The soil of the greater part is a red, plastic, clayey loam, of a medium or low fertility, with a large intermixture of small quartz pebbles. On the river bank is a tract of low alluvial land, vary ing- from an eighth to a quarter of a mile in breadth. The soil of this is a sandy loam, of the very finest quality hi every respect, and it has been discovered, in some places, to be over ten feet in thickness; at which depth the sound trunk of a white oak has been foiind, showing it to be a "recent deposit. I was assured that good crops of corn, wheat, and clover, had been taken from it, without its giving any indications of "wearing out," although no manure, except an occasional dressing of lime, had ever been returned to it. Maize, wheat, and clover for two years, usually occupy the ground, in succession, both on upland and lowland, herd's-grass (red-top of New York), sometimes taking' the place of the clover, or being grown with it for hay, in which case the ground remains in sward for several years. Oats are sometimes also introduced, but the yield is said to be very small. Hay alwavs brings a high price in llichrnond, and is usually shipped to that market from the eastward. This year, .-however, it is but a trifle above New York prices, and the main supply is drawn from this "vicinity. I notice that oats, in the straw, are brought, in considerable quantity, to Kichmond, for horse-feed, from the surrounding country. It is often pressed in bales, like hay, and sells for about the same price. At present, hay, brought from New York in bales, is selling at $1 25 to $1 50 per cwt.; oats, in straw, the same; oats, by the bushel, 40 to 50 cents; maize, 6G to TO cents; wheat straw, 75 cents per cwt.; maize leaves (" corn fodder"), 75 cents per cwt. 42 OUR SLAVE STATES. "Wheat, notwithstanding these high prices of forage crops, is considered the most important crop of the farm. The practice is to cut the maize (which is grown on much the same plan as is usual in New York) at the root, stock it in rows iipon the field, plow the lands between the rows (one way) and drill in wheat with a horse drilling machine: then remove the stocks of maize into the sown ground, and prepare the intervening lands in like manner. TJie maize is afterwards husked in the field, at leisure, and carted off, with the stalks, when the ground is frozen. Sometimes the seed-wheat is sown by hand on the fresh-plowed ground, and harrowed in. In the spring, clover-seed is sown "by hand. The wheat is reaped "by either Hussey's or M'Cormick's machine, both being used on the farm, but Hussey's rather preferred, as less liable to get out of order, and, if slightly damaged, more readily repaired by the slave blacksmith on the farm. Lime is frequently applied, commonly at the time of wheatsowing, at the rate of from twenty-five to fifty bushels an acre. It is brought, by sea, from Haverstraw, JSTew York, at a cost, delivered o.n the farm, of 7^ to 7^- cents a, bushel. Plaster (sul phate of lime) has been tried, with little or no perceptible effect on the crops. Dung, largely accumulated from, the farm stock, is applied almost exclusively to the maize crops. Guano is also largely used as an application for wheat. After trying greater and less quantities, the proprietor has arrived at the conclusion that 200 Ibs. to the acre is most profitable. It will, hereafter, lie applied, at that rate, to all the wheat grown upon the farm. It lias also been used with advantage for ruta baga. For corn, it was not thought of much value ; the greatest advantage had been VIRGINIA. 43 obtained by applying it to the poorest land of the farm, some of ivhich -was of so small fertility, and at such a distance from the cattle quarters and the river., that it could not be profitably cultivated, and had been at ivaste for many years. I understand this may ~be the case with half the land included in the large farms or plantations of this part of the country. Two hundred weight of Peruvian guano to the acre brought fifteen bushels of wheat; and a good crop of cloyer was perfectly sure to follow, "by which the permanent improvement of the soil could "be secured. This the proprietor esteemed to "be the greatest benefit he derived from guano, and he is pursuing a regular plan for bringing all his more sterile upland into the system of Convertible husbandry by its aid. This plan is, to prepare the ground, "by fallowing, for wheat; spread 200 pounds of guano, broadcast, on the harrowed surface, and turn it under, as soon as possible after the sowers, with a "two-shovel plow" (a sort of large two-shared cultivator, which could only be used, I should think, on very light, clean soils), the wheat either being sown and covered with the guano, or, immediately afterwards, drilled in with a horse-machine. In the spring, clover is sown. After the wheat is harvested, the clover is allowed to grow, without being pastured or mown, for twelve months. The ground is then limed, clover plowed in, and, in October, again guanoed, two hundred weight to the acre, and wheat sown, with clover to follow. The clover may be pastured the fol lowing year, but in the year succeeding that, it is allowed to grow unchecked until August, when it is plowed in, the ground again guanoed, and wheat sown with, herd's-grass (red-top) and clover, which is to remain, for mowing and pasture, as long as the ground will profitably sustain it. 44: OTJR SLAVE STATES. /' SLAVE LA.BOR. The labor of this farm was entirely performed "by slaves. I did not inquire their number, but I judged there were from twenty to forty. Their "quarters" lined the approach-road to the mansion, a.nd were well-made and comfortable log cabins, about thirty feet long by twenty wide, and eight feet -wall, with a high loft and shingle roof. Each, divided in the middle, and having a brick chimney outside the wall at each end, was intended to be occupied by two families. There were square windows, closed "by wooden ports, having a single pane of glass in the center. The house-servants were neatly dressed, hut the field- hands wore very coarse and ragged garments. During three hours, or more, in which I was in company with the proprietor, I do not think there were ten consecutive minutes uninterrupted by some of the slaves requiring his personal direc tion or assistance. He was even obliged, three times, to leave the dinner-table. " You see," said he? smiling, as lie came in the last time, "a farmer's life, in this country, is no sinecure." This turning the conversation to Slavery, he observed, in answer to a remark of mine, " I only wish, your philanthropists would contrive some satisfactory plan to relieve us of it; the trouble and the responsibility of properly taking- care of our negroes, you may judge, from what you see yourself here, is anything hut enviable. But what can we do that is better ? Our free negroes--and, I believe it is the same at the North as it is here--are a miserable set of vagabonds, drunken, vicious, worse off, it is my honest opinion, than those who are retained in slavery. I am. satisfied, too, that our slaves are better off, as they are, than the majority of your free laboring classes at the !N"ortji." VIRGINIA. 45 I expressed my doubts. " "Well, they certainly are better off than the English agricul tural laborers or, I believe, those of any other Christian country. Free labor might be more profitable to us: I am inclined to think it would be. The slaves are excessively careless and wasteful, and, in rarious ways--which, without you lived among them, you could hardly be made to understand--subject us to very annoying losses. " To make anything by farming, here, a man has got to live a hard life. You see how constantly I am called upon--and, often, it is about as bad at night as by day. Last night I did not sleep a wink till near morning; I am quite worn out with it, and my wife's health is failing. But I cannot rid myself of it," OVERSEERS. I asked why he did not employ an overseer. " Because I do not think it right to trust to such men as we have to use, if we use any, for overseers." "Is the general character of overseers bad?" " They are the curse of this country, sir; the worst men in the community. *" * *" * But lately, I had another sort of fellow offer--a fellow like a dancing-master, with kid gloves, and wrist-bands turned up over his coat-sleeves, and all so nice, that I was almost ashamed to talk to him in my old coat and slouched hat. Half a bushel of recommendations he had with him, too. "Well, he was not the man for me--not half the geutlcmanj with all his airs, that Ned here is "--(a black servant, vrto was "bursting with suppressed laughter, behind his chair). " Oh, they are interesting creatures, sir," he continued, " and, with all their faults, have many beautiful traits. I can't help . 46 OUR S i A. V E STATES. being attached to them, and I am sure they love ns." In Ms own case, at least, I did not doubt it; Ms manner towards them was paternal--familiar and kind; and they came to him like children who have "been given some task, and constantly are wanting to "be encouraged and. guided, simply and confidently. At dinner, he frequently addressed the servant familiarly, and drew him into our conversation as if he were a family friend, better informed, on some local and domestic points, than himself. He informed me that able-bodied field-hands were hired out. in this vicinity, at the rate of one hundred dollars a year, and their hoard and clothing'. Four able-bodied men, that I have employed the last year, on my farm in New York, I pay, on an average, one hundred and five dollars each, and board them; they clothe themselves at an expense, I think, of twenty dollars a year;--probably, slaves' clothing costs twice that. They constitute all the force of my farm, hired by the year (except a bov, who goes to school in "Winter), and, in my absence, have no overseer except one of themselves, whom I appoint. X pay the fair wages of the market, more than any of my neighbors, I believe, and these are no lower than the average of what I have paid for the last five years. It 5s difficult to measure the labor performed in a clay by one, with that of the other, on account of undefined differences in the soil, and, in the bulk and weight of articles operated upon. But, here, I am shown tools that no man in his senses, with us, would allow a laborer, to whom he was paying wages, to be encumbered with; and the excessive weight and clumsiness of which, I would judge, would make work at least ten per cent, greater than those ordinarily iised with us. And I am assured that, in the careless and clumsy way they must be used by the slaves, anything lighter or less ViKOflNIA. 47 rude could not be furnished them -with good economy, and that sucli tools as we constantly give our laborers, and find our profit in giving them, would not last out a day in a Virginia corn-field --much lighter and more free from stones though it be than ours. Bo, too, when I ask why mules are so universally substituted for horses on the farm, the first reason given, and confessedly the most conclusive one, is, that horses cannot bear the treatment that they always must get from negroes ; horses are always soon foundered or crippled by them, while mules will "bear cudgeling, and lose a meal or two now and then, and not be materially injured, and they do not take cold or get sick if neglected or overworked. But I do not need to go further than to the window of the room in which I am writing, to see, at almost any time, treatment of cattle that would insure the immediate discharge of the driver, by almost any farmer owning them at the-North. A COAL MINE----NEGHO AND ENGLISH MINERS. Yesterday I visited a coal-pit: the majority of the milling laborers are slaves, and uncommonly athletic and fine-looking negroes; but a considerable number of white hands are also employed, and they occupy all the responsible posts. The slaves are, some of them, owned by the Mining Company; but the most are hired of their owners, at from $120 to $200 a year, the company boarding and clothing them. (I have the impression that I heard ifc was customary to give them a certain allowance of money and let them find their own board). The white hands are mostly English or Welchmen. One of them, with whom I conversed, told me that he had been here several years; he had previously lived some years at the North. 48 OTJR SLAVE STATES. He got "better wages liere than lie had earned at the North, but he was not contented, and did not intend to remain. On pressing him for the reason of his discontent, he said,, after some hesitation, that he had rather live where he could "be more free; a man had to lie too "discreet" here; if one happened to say anything that gave offense, they thought no more of drawing a pistol or a knife upon Mm, than they would of kicking a dog that was in their way. 2sfot long- since,, a young English fellow came to the pit, and was put to work along with a gang of negroes. One morning, about a week afterwards, twenty or thirty men called on him, and told him that they would allow him fifteen minutes to get out of sight, and if they ever saw him in those parts again, they would "give him hell." They "were all armed, and there was nothing for the young fellow to do but to move " right off." "What reason did they give him for it?" " They did not give him any reason." "But what had he done?" " "Why I believe they thought he had been too free with the niggers; he wasn't used to them, you see, sir, and he talked to ?em free like, and they thought he'd make '*ern think too mucli of themselves." He said the slaves were very well fed, and well treated--not worked over hard. They were employed night and day, ID relays. The coal from these beds is of special value for gas manu facture, and is shipped, for that purpose, to all the large towns on the Atlantic sea-board, even to beyond Boston. It is delivered to shipping at Kichmond, at fifteen cents a bushel: about thirtybushels go to a ton. VIRGINIA. 49 VALUABLE SEP.YANTS. The hotel at whi61i I am staying, " the American," Milberger Smith, from IJfe'w York, proprietor, is a very capital one. I have never, this side the Atlantic, had my comforts provided, for better, in my private room, with so little annoyance from the servants. The chamber-servants are negroes, and are accom plished in their business ; (the dining-room servants are Irish). A man and a woman attend together upon a fev.7 assigned rooms, in the hall adjoining which they are constantly in waiting; your bell is answered immediately, your orders are quickly and quietly followed, and your particular personal wants anticipated as much as possible, and provided for, as well -as the usual offices performed, when you are out. The man becomes your servant while you arc in your room ; he asks, at night, when he comes to request your boots, at what time he shall come in the morning, and then, without being very exactly punctual, he comes quietly in, makes your fire, sets the boots before it, brashes and arranges your clothes, lays out your linen, arranges your washing and . dressing gear, asks if yon want anything else of him before breakfast, opens the shutters, and goes off to the next room. I took occasion to speak well of him to my neighbor one day, that I might judge whether I was particularly favored. " Oh yes," he said, " Henry was a very good boy, very--> valuable servant ---- quite so ---- would be worth, two thousand dollars, if he was a little younger--easy." At dinner, a respectable looking, gray-headed man asked another: " Niggers are going high now, aint they 7" "Yes, sir." " What would you consider a fair price for a woman thirty years old, with a young-one two years old?" 3 50 OUR SLAVE STATES. ' : Depends altogether on her physical condition, you know. ----Has she any other children?" " Yes; four." '------- "Well--I reckon about seven to eight hundred." " I bought one yesterday--gave six hundred and fifty." " Well, sir, if she's tolerable likely, you did well." UKESS, AND STYLE OF PEOPLE. L/ What is mast remarkable in the appearance of the people of the better class, is their invariably high-dressed condition; look down the opposite side of the table, even at breakfast, and you will probably see thirty men drinking coffee, all in full funeral dress, not an easy coat amongst them. It is the yame in the street, and the same with ladies as with gentlemen; silk and satin, under umbrellas, rustle along the side-walk, or skip across it between carriages and the shops, as if they were going to a dinner-party, at eleven o'clock in the morning. The last is only New York repeated, to be sure, but the gentlemen carry it further than in New York, and seem never to indulge in undress. I have rarely seen a liner assemblage of people than filled the theatre one night, at the benefit of the Bateman children, who are especial favorites of the publio here. As the Legislature is in session, I presume there was a fair representation of the Vir ginians of all parts of the State. A remarkable proportion of the men were very tall and of animated expression--and of the women, fair, refined, and serene. The men, however, were very deficient in robustness, and the women? though graceful and attractive, had none of that dignity and stateliness for which the dames of Virginia were formerly much distinguished. VIRGINIA, - 51 In manners, I notice that, between man and man, more ceremony and. form is sustained, in familiar conversation, than well-bred people commonly use at the [North. Among the people you see in the streets, full half, I should think, are more or less of negro blood, and a very decent, civil people these seem, in general, to be; more so than the laboring class of whites, among; which there are many very ruffianly looking fellows. There is a considerable population of foreign origin, generally of the least valuable class ; very dirty German Jews, especially, abonnd, and their characteristic shops (with their characteristic smells, quite as bad as in Cologne), are thickly set-in the narrowest and meanest streets, wixich seem to be otherwise inhabited mainly by negroes. STKEET PEOPLE. Immense wagons, drawn by sis mules each, the teamster always riding on the back of the near-wheeler, are a characteristic feature of the streets. Another is the wood-carts; small trucks loaded with about a cord of pine wood, drawn by three mules or horses, one in shafts, and two others, abreast, before him; a negro always riding the shaft-horse and guiding the leaders with a single rein, one pull to turn, them to the right, and two to the left, with a great deal of the whip whichever way they go. The same guiding apparatus, a single line, with branches to each bit, is used altogether upon, the long wagon teams'. On the canal, a long, narrow, canoe-like boat, perhaps fifty feet long and six wide, and drawing but a foot or two of water, is nearly as common as the ordinary large boats, such as are used oil our canals. They come out of some of the small, narrow, crooked streams, connected with the canals, in which a difficult navigation 52 OUR SLAVE STATES. is effected "by poleing. They are loaded with tobacco, flour, and a great variety of raw country produce. The canal boatmen of Virginia seem, to be quite as rude, insolent, and riotous a class as those of !N~e\v York, and every facility is evidently afforded them, at Richmond, for indulging their peculiar appetites and tastes. A great many low eating, and, I should think, drinking shops are frequented chiefly by the negroes. Dancing and other amusements are carried on in these at night. From reading the comments of Southern statesmen and news papers on the crime and misery -which sometimes result from the accumulation of poor and ignorant people, with no intelligent masters to take care of them, in our Northern towns, one might g-et 'the impression that Southern towns--especially those not demoralized by foreign commerce--were comparatively free from a low and licentious population. From what I have seen, how ever, I should be now led to think that there was at least as much vice, and of what we call rowdyism, in Richmond, as in any Northern town of its size.* THE GKEAT SOUTHERN KOTJTE AND ITS FAST TKAIN. The train was advertised to leave at 3,30 P. M. At that hour the cars were crowded with passengers, and the engineer, punc tually at the minute, gave notice that lie was at his post, by a long, loud whistle of the locomotive. Five minutes afterwards he gave us an impatient jerk; ten minutes afterwards we w SAB PICTURE.--A gentleman informs the Richmond (Va.) Dispatch that, while taking a stroll on one of the islands in James river, not far from Mayo's Bridge, last Sunday morning, lie counted as many as twenty-two "boys, from ten to-fifteen years of ago, engaged in gaming -with cards and. dice for money. In some of the parties he saw grown men and small boys playing bluff, and cursing swearing, and drinking.-- Southern Newspaper. VIRGINIA. . 53 advanced tliree rods ; twelve minutes afterwards, returned to first position: continued, " backing and filling" upon the bridge over the rapids of the James river, for half an hour. At precisely four o'clock, crossed the bridge and fairly started for Petersburg. Kan twenty miles in exactly an hour and thirty minutes, (thir teen miles an hour; mail train, especially recommended by advertisement as "fast"). !Brakcs on, three times, for cattle on the track; twenty minutes spent at way-stations. Mat rail. Locomotive built at Philadelphia. I am informed that most of those used on the road--perhaps all those of the stow trains--are made at Petersburg. At one of the stoppages, smoke was to be seen issuing from the truck of a car. The conductor, on having his attention called to it, nodded his head sagely, took a morsel of tobacco, put his hands in bis pocket, looked at the truck as if he "would mesmerize it, spat upon it, and then stept upon the platform and shouted "All right! Go ahead 1" At the next stoppage, the smoking was furious ; conductor bent himself over it with an evidently strong exercise of his will, but not succeeding to tranquilize the subject at all, he suddenly relinquished the attempt, and, deserting Mesmer for Preisnitz, shouted, " Ho ! boy! bring me some "water here." A negro soon brought a quart of water in a tin vessel. "Hain't got no oil, Columbus?" " No, sir." " Hum--go ask Mr. Smith for some: this yer's a screaking so, I durstn't go on. You Scott! get some salt. And look here, some of you boys, get me some more water. D'ye hear?" Sah% oil, and water, were crowded into the box, and, after five minutes longer delay, we went on, the truck still smoking, and 54 DUE. SLAVE STATES. the water and oil boiling in the "box, until -we reached Petersburg. The heat was the result, I suppose, of. a neglect of sufficient or timely oiling. "While waiting', in a carriage, for the driver to get ray "baggage, I saw a negro oiling all the trucks of the train; as he proceeded from one to the other, he did not give himself the trouble to elevate the outlet of his oiler, so that a stream of oil, costing probably a dollar and a half a gallon, was poured out upon the ground the whole length of the train. ONE OI? THIi LAW-GIVERS. While on the bridge at Kichmond, the car in which I was seated was over-full--several persons standing; among them, one considerably " excited/' who informed the company that he was a Member of the House of Delegates, and that he would take advantage of this opportune collection of the people, to expose an atrocious attempt, on the part of the minority, to jump a Bill through the Legislature, which was not in accordance with true Democratic principles. He continued for some time to address them in most violent, absurd, profane, and meaningless language ; the main point of his oration being, to demand the popu lar gratitude for himself, for having had the sagacity and courage to prevent the accomplishment of the nefarious design. He afterwards attempted to pass into the ladies' car, but was dis suaded from doing so by the conductor, who prevailed on a young man to give him his seat. Having taken it, he immedi ately lifted his feet upon the back of the seat before him, resting them upon the shoulders of its occupant. This gentle man turning his head, he begged his pardon; but, hoping it would not occasion him inconvenience, he said he would prefer to keep them there, and did so ; soon afterwards falling asleep. VIRG-INIA. 55 FREIGHT TAKEN----THE SLAVE TRADE. There were, in the train, two first-class passenger cars, and two freight cars. The latter were occupied by about forty negroes, most of them belonging to traders, who were sending them to the cotton States to be sold. Such kind of evidence of activity in the slave trade of Virginia is to be seen every day; but particulars and statistics of it are not to "be obtained by a stranger here. Most gentlemen of character seem to have a special disinclination to converse on the subject ; and it is denied, with feeling1, that slaves are often reared, as is supposed by the Abolitionists, with the intention of selling them to the traders. It appears to me evident, however, from the manner in which I hear the traffic spoken of incidentally, that the cash value of a slave for sale, above the cost of raising it from infancy to the age at which it commands the highest price, is generally considered among the surest elements of a planter's wealth. Such a nigger is worth such a price, and such another is too old to learn to pick cotton, and sucli another will bring so much, when it has grown a little more, I have frequently heard people say, in the street, or the public-houses. That a slave woman is commonly esteemed least for her laboring qualities, most for those qualities which give value to a, brood-mare is. also, con stantly made apparent.'* do in the Daily Tlines 5G OUR SLAVE STATES. By comparing the average decennial ratio of slave increase in all the States with the difference in the number of the actual slavepopulation of the slave-breeding1 States, as ascertained by the census, it is apparent that the number of slaves exported to the cotton States is considerably more than twenty thousand a year. While calling on a gentleman occupying an honorable official j>osition at Bichmond, I noticed upon his table a copy of Professor Johnson's Agricultural Tour in the United States. Referring to a paragraph in it, where some statistics of the value of the slaves raised and annually exported from Virginia were given, I asked if he knew how these had "been obtained, and whether they were reliable. "Ko," lie replied; "I don't know anything- about it; but if they are anything unfavorable to the Institution of slavery, you may "be sure they are false." This is but an illustration, in extreme, of the manner in which I find a desire to obtain more correct but definite information, on the subject of slavery, is usually met, by gentlemen otherwise of enlarged mind and generous qualities. A gentleman, who was a member of. the "Union Safety Com mittee " of New York, during the excitement which attended the discussion, of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, told rue that, as he was passing through Virginia this winter, a man entered the car in which he was seated, leading in a negro girl, whose, manner and expression of face indicated dread and grief. Thinking she was a criminal, he asked the man what she had done: "Done? Nothing." "What are vou going to do with her?" "Pin taking her down to Richmond, to be sold." "Does she belong to yon?" "No; she belongs to ----------; he raised her." VIRGINIA. 57 "Why docs lie sell her--lias she clone anything wrong'?" "Bone anything? No: she's no fault, I reckon." "Then, what does he want to sell for 1?" "Sell her for! "Why shouldn't.,he sell her? He sells one or two every year; wants the money for 'em, I reckon." The irritated tone and severe stare with which this was said, my friend took as a caution not to pursue his investiga tion. A gentleinan, with wliom I was conversing on the subject of the cost of slave labor, in answer to an inquiry--what proportion of all the stock of slaves of an old plantation might be reckoned upon to do full work?--answered, that he owned ninety-six negroes; of these, only thirty-five were field-hands, the rest being either too young or too old for hard work. He reckoned his whole force as only equal to twenty-one strong men, or "prime field-hands." But this proportion was somewhat smaller than usual, he added, "because his women were uncommonly good breeders; he did not suppose there was a lot of women anywhere that bred faster than his; he never beard of babies coming so fast as they did on his plantation; it was perfectly surprising ; and every one of them, in his estimation, was worth two hundred dollars, as negroes were selling now, the moment it drew breath." I asked what he thought might be the usual proportion of workers to slaves, supported on plantations, throughout the South. On the large cotton and sugar plantations of the more Southern States, it was very high, he replied; because their hands were nearly all bought &-&& picked for work; he supposed, on these, it would be about one-half; but, on any old plantation, where the stock of slaves had been an inheritance, and none had 58 O U K SLAVE STATES. "been bought or sold, he thought the working force would rarely be more than one-third, at, most, of the whole number. This gentleman was out of health, and told me, with frankness, that such was the trouble and annoyance his negroes occasioned him--although lie had an overseer--and so wearisome did he find the lonely life he led on his plantation, that he could not remain upon it; and, as he knew everything would go to the dogs if lie did not, he was seriously contemplating to sell out, retaining only his foster-mother and a body-servant. Ho thought of taking them to Louisiana and Texas, for sale; but, if he should learn that tliere was much probability that Lower Califor nia would be made a slave State, he supposed it would pay him to wait, as probably, if that should occur, he could take them there and sell them for twice as mucli as they would now bring in New Orleans. He knew very well, he said, that, as they were, raising corn and tobacco, tliey were paying nothing- at all like a fair interest on their value/'* Some of his best hands he now rented out, to work in a furnace, and for the best of these he had been offered, for next year, two hundred dollars. He did not know whether he ought to let them go, though. They were worked hard, and had too much liberty, and were acquiring bad habits. They earned money, by overwork, and spent it for whisky, and got a habit of roaming about and taking care of themselves; because, when they were not at work in the furnace, nobody looked out for them. I begin to suspect that the great trouble and anxiety of South ern gentlemen is:----How, without quite destroying the capabilities * Mr. Wise is reported to liave stated, in his < didato for Governor, iu 1855, that, if slavery \ negroes would sell for $5,000 apiece. VIRGINIA. of the negro for any work at all, to prevent him from learning to take care of himself. KUKAIj SCliNEJRY ANI> RURAI, LIFE IN VIRGINIA. PETERSBURG-, Dec. 28.--It was early in a fine, mild, bright morning, like the plcasantest we ever have in March, that I alighted, from a train of cars, at a country station. Besides tho shanty that stood for a station-house, there was a small, com fortable farm-house on the right, and a country store on the left, and around them, perhaps, fifty acres of cleared land, - now much flooded with muddy water;--all environed by. thick woods. A few negro children, staring as fixedly and posed as life lessly as if' they were really figures "carved in ebonv," stood, lay, and lounged on the sunny side of the ranks of locomotive-firewood; a white man, smoking a cigar, looked out of the door of the store, and another, chewing tobacco, leaned against a gate-post in front of the farm-house; I advanced to the latter, and asked him if I could hire a horse in. the neighborhood. "How d'ye do, sir?" he replied; "I have some horses--none on 'em very good ones, though----rather hard riders; reckon, perhaps, they wouldn't suit you very well." " Thank you; do you think I could find anything better about here ? " "Colonel Qilliii, over here to the store,'s got a right nice saddle-horse, if he'll let yon. take her. I'll go over there with you, and see if he will. .... Mornhi', Colonel;--here's a gentleman that wants to go to Thomas W.'s: couldn't you let him have your saddle-horse?" "How do you do, sir; I suppose you'd come "back to-night?" GO OUR S X. A. V E STATES. "That's my intention, bat I might be detained till to-morrow, unless it would be inconvenient to you to spare your horse." ""Well, yes, sir, I reckon you can have her;--Tom!--Tom!-- Tom f ]S"ow, has that devilish nigger gone again! Tom! Oh, Tom! saddle the iilly for this gentleman.------Have you ever been to Mr. W.'s, sir?" " !N"o, I have not." "It isn't a very- easy place for strangers to go to from here ; but I reckon I can direct you, so you'll have no difficulty. He accordingly began to direct me; but, the way appeared so difficult to find, I asked him to let me make a written memoran dum, and, from this memorand\im, I now repeat the directions he gave me. "You take this road here--you'll see where it's-most traveled, and it's easy enough to keep on it for about a mile; then there's s, fork, arid you take the right; pretty soon, you'll cross a creek and turn to tlie right--the creek's been up a good deal lately, and there's some big trees fallen along there, and, if they ha'n't got thorn out of the way, yon may have some difficulty in finding where the road is ; but you keep bearing off to the right, where it's the most open (i, e., the wood), and you'll see it again pretty Boon. Then you go on, keeping along in the road--you'll see where folks have traveled before--for maybe quarter of a mile, and you'll find a cross-road; you must take that to the left; pretty soon you'll pass two cabins ; one of 'em's old and all fallen m, the other one's new, and there's a white man lives into it: you can't mistake it. About a hundred yards beyond it, there's a fork, and you take the left--it turns square off, and it's fenced for a good bit; keep along by tlie fence, and you can't miss it. It's right straight beyond that till you come to a school-house, VIRGINIA. 61 there's a gate opposite to it, and off there there's a big house-- but I don't reckon you'll see it neither, for the woods. But some where, about three hundred yards beyond the school-house, you'll find a little road running off to the left through an. old field; you take that and keep along in it, and in less than half a mile you'll find a path going square off to the right; you take that, and keep on it till you pass a, little cabin in the woods; aint nobody lives there now : then it turns to the left, and when you come to a fence and gate, you'll sec a house there, that's Mr. George Eivcrs' plantation--it breaks in two, and you take the right, and when you come to the end of the fence, turn the corner--don't keep on, but turn there. Then it's straight, till you come to the creek again--there's a, bridge there ; don't go over the bridge, hut turn to the left and keep along nigh the creek, and pretty soon you'll see a meeting-house in the woods ; yon go to that, and you'll see a path bearing off to the right --it looks as if it was going Tight away from the creek, but you take it, and pretty soon it'll bring you to a saw-mill on the creek, up higher a piece; yott just cross the creek there, and you'll find some people at the mill, and they'll put you right straight 011 the road to Mr. W.'s." " How far is it all, sir/?" "I reckon it's about two hours' ride, when the roads are good, to the saw-mill. Mr. W.'s gate is only a mile or so beyond that, and then you've got another mile, or better, after you get to the gate, hut you'll see some nigger-quarters--the niggers belong to Mr. W., and I reckon ther'll be some of 'em round, and they'll show you just where to go." After reading over my memorandum, and finding it correct, and agreeing with him that I should pay two dollars a day for 63 OUR SLAVE STATES. tile mare7 we walked out, and found her saddled and waiting for me. I remarked that she was very good-looking. "Yes, sir; she a'nt a had filly; out of a mare that came of Lady Rackett by old Lord-knowa-who, the best horse we ever had in this part of the country: I expect you have heard of him. Oh! she's maybe a little playful, but you'll find her a pleasant riding-horse/" The filly was just so pleasantly playful, and full of well-bred life, as to create a joyful, healthy, sympathetic, frolicsome heedlessness in her rider--"walking rapidly, and with a sometimes irresistible inclination to dance and bound; making believe she was frightened at all the burnt stamps, and flashes of sun-light on the ice, and, every time a hog lifted himself up before her, start ing back in the most ridiculous manner, as if she had never seen a hog before ; bounding over the fallen trees as easily as a life boat over a billow ; and all the time gracefully playing tricks with her feet, and her ears, and her tail, and evidently enjoying herself just like any child in a half-holiday ramble through the woods, yet never failing to answer to every motion of my hand or my knees, as if she were 'a part of myself. In faet,; there soon came to be a real good understanding, if not even something like a merging of identity, between Jane and me (the filly's name was Jane Grillin); if 7ter feet were not in the stirrups, I am sure I had all the sensation of tripping it on the ground with mine, half the time, and we both entered into each other's feelings, and moved, and were moved, together, in a way which a two hours' lecture, by a professor of psychology, would be insufficient, satis factorily, to explain to people who never------but all that's of no consequence, except that, of course, we soon lost our way. VIRO-INI A . 63 We were walking along slowly, quietly, musingly--I was fondling- her -with, ray hand, under her mane, when it suddenly came into my mind: "why Jane! it's a long- time since I've thought anything about the road--I wonder where we've got to/' We stopped and tried to work up our dead-reckoning. First, we picked our way from the store down to the brook, through a deeply corrugated clay-road; then there was the swamp, with the fallen trees and thick underwood, beaten down and barked in the miry parts by wagons, making a road for themselves, no traces of which could we find in the harder, pebbly ground. At length when we came on to drier land, and among pine trees, we discovered a, clear way cut through them, and a distinct road before us again ; and this brought us soon to an old clearing, just beginning to be grown over with pines, in which was the old cabin of rotten logs, one or two of them falling out of rank on the door-side, and the whole concern having a dangerous lurch to one corner, as if too much whisky had been drank in it: then a more recent clearing-, with a fenced field and another cabin, the residence of that white man we were told of probably. IN^O white people, however, were to be seen, but two negroes sat in the month of a wigwam, husking maize, and a couple of hungry hounds came bounding over the zig-zag, gateless fence, as if they had agreed with each other that they would wait no longer for the return of their master, but would straight way pull down the first traveler that passed, and have something to eat before they were quite famished. They stopped short, however, when they had got within a good cart-whip's length of us, and contented themselves with dolefully youping as long as we continued in sight. "We turned the corner, following some slight traces of a road, and shortly afterwards met a curious 04 OUR, SLAVE STATES. vehicular establishment, probably belonging to the master of the hounds. It consisted of an axle-tree and wheels, and a pair of shafts made of unbarked saplings, in which was harnessed, by attachments of raw-hide and rope, a single small black ox. There was a bit, made of telegraph-wire, in his mouth, by which he was guided, through the mediation of a pair of much knotted rope-reins, by a white man--a dignified sovereign, wearing a bnmless crown--who sat upon a two-bushel sack, (of meal, I trust, for the hounds' sake,) balanced upon the axle-tree, and who saluted me with a frank "How are you':" as we came opposite each other. Soon after this, we reached a small grove of much older and larger pines than we had seen before, with long and horizontally stretching branches, and clnller and thinner foliage. In the middle of it was another log-cabin, with a door in one of the gable-ends, a stove-pipe, half-rusted away, protruding from the other, and, in the middle of one of the sides, a small square port-hole., closed by a wooden shutter. This must have been the school-house, but there were no children then about it,, and no appearance of there having been any lately. Near it was a long string of fence and a gate and lane, which gave entrance, probably, to a large plantation, though there was no cultivated land within sight of the road. * I could remember hardly anything after this, except a continu ation of pine trees, big, little, and medium in size, and hogs, and a black, crooked, burnt sapling, that we had made believe was a snake springing at us and had jumped away from, and then we had gone on at a trot--it must have been some time ago, that --and then I was paying attentions to Jane, and finally my thoughts had gone wool-gathering, and we must have traveled VIRGINIA . . 65 some miles out of our way and " never mind," said Jane, lifting her head, and turning in the direction we had been going-, " I dont think its any great matter if we are lost; such a fine day BO long- since Ive been out; if you dont care, Id just as lief "be lost as not; lets go on and see "what we shall come to." " Very well, my dear, yon. know the country better than I do ; go where you like; if youll risk your dinner, Im quite ready to go anywhere in yoxir company. Its quite certain we have not passed any meeting-house, or creek, or saw-mill, or negro-quar ters, and, as we have been two hours on the road, its evident we are not going straight to Mr. W.s.; Ill try at least to take note of what we do pass after this," and I stood up in the stirrups as we walked on, to see what the country around us was. " Old fields" a coarse, yellow, sandy soil, hearing scarce anything but pine trees and hroom-sedge. In some places, for acres, the pines would not be above five feet high that was land that had been in cultivation, used up and " turned out," not more than sis or eight years before ; then there were patches of every age; sometimes the trees were a hundred feet high. At long Intervals, there were fields in which the pine was just beginning to spring- hi beautiful green plumes from the ground, and was yet hardly noticeable among the dead brown grass and sassafras hushes and blackberry-vines, which nature first sends to hide the nakedness of the impoverished earth. Of living creatures, for miles, not one was to be seen (not even a crow or a snow-bird), except hogs. These long, lank, bony, snake-headed, hairy, wild beasts would come dashing across our path, in packs of from three to a dozen, with short, hasty grunts, almost always at a gallop, and looking neither to right nor left, as if they were in pursuit of a fox, and were 66 O UK SLAVE STATES. quite certain to catch, him in the next hundred yards ; or droves of little pigs would rise up suddenly in the sedge, and scamper off squealing into cover, v/hile tlieir heroic mothers would turn around and make a stand, looking fiercely at us, as if they were quite ready to fight if we advanced any further, "but always breaking, as we came near, -with, a loud fioosch / Once I saw a house, across a large, new old-field, hut it was far off', and there was no distinct path leading towards it out of the wagon-track we were following; so we did not go to it, but continued walking steadily on through the old-fields and pine woods for more than an hour longer. We then arrived at a grove of tall oak trees, in the midst of which ran a brook, giving motion to a small grist-mill. Back of tlie rail! were' two log cabins, and near these a number of negroes, in holiday clothes, were standing in groups among the trees. When we stopped one of them came towards us. He wore a "battered old hat, of the cylindrical fashion, stiffly starched shirt-collar, cutting his ears, a red cravat, and an old black dress coat, thread-bare and a little ragged, but adorned witli new brass buttons. HG knew Mr. Thomas W-, certainly he did; and he reckoned I had come about four miles (he did not know but it might be eight, if I thought so) off the road I liad been directed to follow. But that was of no consequence,, because he could show me where to go by a straight road--a cross cut--'from, here, that would make it just as quick for me as if I had gone the way I had intended. " How far is it from here?" I asked. " Oh, 'taint far, sar." " How far do you think ?" " Well, massa, I spec--I spec--(looking at my horse) I spec, VIRGINIA. . 67 massa? ef you goes de way, sar, dat I shows you, sal1, I reckon it '11 take you--" " How far is it--liow many miles ?" (i How many miles, sar ? ha,! masser, I don 'zactly reckon I ken tell ou.--not 'cisely, sar----how many miles it is, not 'zactly, 'cisely, sar." "How is that--you don't what 1?" " I don't 'zactly reckon I can give you de drection excise about de miles, sar." " Oh! but how many miles do you think it is; is it two miles T' " Yes, sar; as de roads is now, I tink it is just ahout two miles. Dey's long ones, dough, I reckon." "Long ones? you think it's more than two miles, don't you, then ?" " Yes, sar, I reckon its four or five miles." " Four or five ! four or five long ones or short ones do you mean ?" " I don 'zactly know, sar, wedder dey is short ones or long ones, sar, but I reckon you find em. middlin' long; I spec you'll he ahout two hours 'fore you he done gone all cle way to mass W.'s." He walked on with us a few rods upon a narrow path, until we came to a crossing of the stream; pointing to where it con tinued on the other side, he assured me that it went right straight to Mr. W.'s plantation. " You juss keep de straight road, mas ter," he repeated several times, " and it'll take you right clar, sar." He had been grinning and bowing, and constantly touching his hat, or holding it in his hand during our conversation, which 68 OWE. SLAVE STATES. I understood to mean, that he would thank me for a dime. I gave it to him, upon which he repeated Ms contortions and Ms form, of direction--"keep de straight road." I rode "through the brook, and he called out again--" you keep dat road right straight and it'll take you right straight dar," I rode up the bank and entered the oak wood, and still again heard him enjoining me to " keep dat road right straight." Within less than quarter of a mile, there was a fork ia the road to the left, which seemed a good deal more traveled than the straight OTIC; nevertheless I kept the latter, and was soon well satisfied that I had done so. It presently led me up a slope out of the oak woods into a dark evergreen forest; and though it was a mere bridle-path, it must have existed, I thought, before the trees began to grow, for it was free of stumps, and smooth and clean as a garden walk, and the pines grew thickly np, about four feet apart, on each side of it, their branches meeting, just clear of iny head, and making a dense shade. There was an agreeable, slightly balsamic odor in the air ; the path was cov ered with a deep, elastic mat of pine leaves, so that our footstep could hardly Ijc heard ; and for a time we greatly enjoyed going along at a lazy, pacing walk of Jane's. It was noon-day, and had been rather warmer than was quite agreeable on the open road, and I took my hat off, and let the living pine leaves brush my hair. But, after a while, I felt slightly chilly; and when Jane, at the same time, gave a little sympathizing caper, I bent my head down, that the Knobs might not hit me, until it nearly rested on her neck, dropped my hands and pressed my knees tightly against her. Away we "bounded! What a glorious gallop Jane had inherited from her noble grandfather! VIRGINIA. 69 Out of the cool, dark-green alley, at last, and. soon -with a more cautious step, down a steep, stony declivity, set with deciduous trees--beech, ash, oak, gum--" gum," beloved of the " minstrels." A brawling shallow brook at the bottom, into which our path descended, though on the opposite shore was a steep high bank, faced by an impenetrable brake of bush and briar. Have we been following a path only leading to a wateringplace, then? I see no continuance of it. Jane does not hesi tate at all; but, as if it was the commonest thing here to take advantage of nature's engineering in this way, walking into the water, turns her head up stream. .For more than a mile we continued following up the brook, which was all the time walled in by insurmountable hanks, over hung by large trees. Sometimes it swept strongly through a deep channel, contracted by boulders ; sometimes piirled and tinkled over a pebbly slope ; and sometimes stood in broad, silent pools, around the edges of which remained a skirt of ice, held there by "bushes and long, broken water-grasses. Across the end of one of these, barring our way, a dead trunk had lately fallen. Jane walked up to it and turned her head to the right. "No," said I, "let's go over." She turned, and made a step left--"No ! over," said I, drawing her back, and touching her. with my heels. Over we went, landing with such.a concussion that! was nearly thrown off. I fell forward upon Jane's neck; she threw up her head, spurning my involuntary embrace ; and then, with swollen nostrils and flashing eyes, walked on rapidly. " Hope you are satisfied," said she, as I pulled my coat down; " if not, you had better spur me again." " "Why, my dear girl, what's the matter? It was nothing but leather--calf-skin--that I touched you with. I have no spurs-- 70 OUR SLAVE STATES. don't you see^" for she was turning her head to bite'my foot. " How, don't be foolish." "Well, well," said she, "I'm a good tempered girl, if I am blood; let's stop and drink." After this, we soon came to pine woods again. Jane was now for leaving the brook. I let her have her own way, and she soon found a beaten track in the woods. It certainly was not the "straight road" we had been directed to follow; but its course was less crooked than that of the brook, and after some time It led us out into a more open country, with young pines and inclosed fields. Eventually we came to a gate and lane, which we followed till we came to another cross-lane, leading straight to a farm-house. As soon as we turned Into tlie cross-lane, half-a-dozen, little negro boys and girls were seen running towards the house, to give alarm. We passed a stable, with a cattle-pen__by its side, opposite which was a vegetable garden, enclosed with split palings ; then across a running- stream of water; then by a small cabin on the light; and a corn-crib aiid large pen, "with a number of fatting hogs in it, on the left; then into a large, irregular- yard, hi the midst of which was the farm-house, before which were now collected three white children, six black ones, two negro women, and an old lady with spectacles. " How dy do, sir ?" said the old lady, as we reined up, bowed, and lifted our hat. and put our black foot foremost. "' Thank you, madam, quite -well; but I have lost my way to Mr. Thomas W.'s, and will trouble yon. to tell me how to go from here to get to His house." By this tiine a black man came cautiously walking in from the field back of the house, bringing an axe; a woman, who had VIRGINIA. 71 been, "washing- clothes in the brook, left her work and came ap on the other side, and two more girls climbed up on to a heap of logs that had been thrown upon the ground, near the porch, for fuel. The swine were making a great noise in their pen, as if feedingtime had come; and a flock of turkeys were gobbling so inces santly and loudly that I was not heard. The old lady ordered the turkeys to be driven away, but nobody stirred to do it, and I rode nearer and repeated my request. 3To "better success. "Can't you shew away them turkeys?" she asked again; but nobody "shewed." A third time I endeavored to make myself understood. " Will yon please direct me how to go to Mr. W.'s ?" ''No, sir--not here." "Excuse me--I asked if you would direct me to MivW.'s." "If some of you niggers don't shew them turkeys, I'll have you all whipped as soon as your mass John conies home," exclaimed the old lady, now quite excited. The man with the 72 OUR SLAVE STATES. axe, -without moving towards them at all, picked up a billet of wood, and threw it at the biggest cock-turkey, who immediately collapsed; and the whole nock .scattered, chased by the two girls who had been on the log-heap. "An't dat Colonel Gallon's mare, master'?" asked the black (IL&U, coming up on my left, " You -want to go to Thomas W.'s T* asked the old lady. "Yes, madam." " It's a good many years since I have been to Thomas "VV.'s, and I reckon I can't tell you how to go there now." "If master'11 go over to Missy Abler's, I reckon dey ken tell 'em dab, ear." "And how shall I g-o to Mrs. Abjer's ?" "You want to go to .-Missy Abler'sj you take dat path right over 'yond dem bars, dar, by de hog-pen, dat runs along by dat fence into de woods, and dat'11 take you right straight clar." "Is you come from Colonel Giuin's, massa?" asked the wash woman. " Yes/'' , "Did yon see a black man dar, day calls Tom, sar?" " Yes." . "Tom's my. husband, massa; if you's gwine back dah, wish you'd tell urn, ef you please, sar, dat I wants to see him particklar ; will ou, massa *?" "Yes." " Tank you, massa." I bowed to the old lady, and, in turning to ride off, saw two other negro boys who had come out of the woods, and were now leaning over the fence, and staring at us, as if I was a giant and Jane was a dragoness. VIRGINIA. 73 We trotted away, found, the path, and in course of a mile had our choice of at least twenty forks to go " straight to Mrs. Abler's." At length, cleared kvnd again, fences, stubble-fields and a lane, that took us to a little cabin, which fronted, ranch to my surprise, upon a broad and well-traveled road. Over the door of the cabin was a sign, done in black, upon a hogshead stave, showing that it was a "GitosEitY," which, in Virginia, means the same thing as in Ireland--a dram-shop. I hung the bridle over a rack before the door, and walked in. At one end of the interior was a range of shelves, on which were two decanters, some dirty tumblers, a box of crackers, a canister, and several packages in paper ; under the shelves were a table.and a barrel. At the other end of the room was a fire place; near this, a chest, and another range of shelves, on which stood plates and cooking utensils: between these and the grocery end were a bed and a spinning--wheel. Near the spmn ing-wheel sat a tall, bony, sickly, sullen young woman, nursing a lan guishing infant. The faculty -would not have discouraged either of them from trying hydropathic practice. In a corner of the fire-place sat a man, smoking a pipe. He rose, as I entered, walked across to the grocery-shelves, turned a chair round at the table, ancl asked me to take- a seat. I cscused myself, and requested, him to direct me to Mr. "W.'s. He had heard of such a man living somewhere about there, but he did not know where. He repeated this, with an oath, when I declined to " take" anything, and iiddecl, that he had not lived here long, and he was sorry he had ever come here. It was the worst job, for himself, ever he did, when he came here, though all he wanted was to just get a living. I rode on till I came to another house, a very pleasant little / -I O U R S L A V E STATES. house, with a steep, gabled roof, curving1 at the bottom, and extending over a little gallery, which was entered, by steps, from the road; back of it were stables and negro-cabins, and by its side was a small garden, and beyond, that a, peach-orchard. As I approached it, a well-dressed young man, with an in telligent and pleasant face, came out into the gallery. I asked him if he could direct me to Mr. W.'s. " Thomas W.'s ?'* he inquired. " Yes, sir." " You are not going in the right direction to go to Mr.W.'s. The shortest way you can take to go there is, to go right back to the Court House." I told him I had just come out of the lane by the grocery on to the road. " Ah I well, I'll tell you; you had better turn round, and keep right straight upon this road till you get to the Court House, and anybody can tell you, there, how to go." " How far is it, sir?" ' To the Court Hous*; ?--not above a mile." "And to Mr. "W.'sT' " To Mr. "W.'s, I should think it was as much as ten miles, and. long ones, too." I rode to the Court House, which was a plain brick building in the centre of a small square, around which there were twenty or thirty houses, two of them being occupied as stores, one as a saddler's shop, one had the sign of "Law Office1 ' upon it, two were occupied by physicians, one other looked as if it might be a meeting-house or school-house, or the shop of any mechanic needing much light for his work, and two were " Hotels." At one of these we stopped, to dine; Jane had "corn and fodder" (they had no oats or hay in the stable), and I had ham and eggs VIRGINIA. (they had no fresh meat in the house). I had several other things, however, that were very good, besides the company of the landlady, who sat alone with me, at the table, in a long, dining hatl, and was very pretty, amiable, and talkative. In a course of apologies, which came in the place of soup, she gave me the clue to the assemblage of negroes I had seen at the mill. It was Christmas week; all the servants thought they must go for at least, one day, to have a frolic, and to-day (as luck would have it, when I was coming,) her cook was off "with some others; she did not suppose they'd be back till to-raorrow, and then, likely as not, they'd be drunk. She did not think this custom, of letting servants go so, at Christmas, was a good one; niggers were not fit to he let to take care of themselves, anyhow. It was very bad for them, and she didn't think it was right, Providence had put the servants into our hands to be looked out for, and she didn't believe it was intended they should be let to do all sorts of wickedness, if Christmas didn't come but once a year. She wished, for her part, ifc did not come but once in ten years. (The negroes, that were husking maize near the cabin where the White-man lived, were, no doubt, slaves, - who had hired themselves out by the day, during the holiday-week, to earn a little money on their own account.) In regard to the size of the dining hall, and the extent of sheds in the stable-yard, the landlady told me - that though at other times they very often did not have a single guest in a day, at "Court time" they always had more than they could com fortably accommodate. I judged, also, from her manners, and the general appearance of the house, as well as from the charges, that, at such times, the company was of a rather respectable 76 OUR SLAVE STATES. character. The appearance of the other public-house indicated that it expected a less select patronage. When I left, my direction was to keep on the main road until I came to a fork, about four miles distant, then take the left, and keep the best traveled road, until I came to a certain house, which was so described that I should know it, where I was advised to ask further directions. The sky was now clouding over; it was growing cold; and we went on, as fast as we conveniently could, until we reached the fork in the road. The direction, to keep the best traveled road, was unpleasantly prominent in my mind; it was near sun set, I reflected, and, however jolly it might be at twelve o'clock at noon, it would be quite another thing to be knocking about among those fierce hogs in the pine-forest, if I should be lost, at twelve o'clock at night. Besides, as the landlady said about her negroes, I did not think it was right to expose Jane to this danger, unnecessarily. A little beyond the fork, there was a large, gray, old house, with a grove of tall poplars before it; a respectable, country-gentleman-of-the-old-school look it had.-- These old Virginians are proverbially hospitable.--It's rather impudent; but I hate to go back to the Court House, and I am ------I will ride on, and look it in the face, at any rate. Zig-zag fences up to a large, square yard, growing full of Lombardy poplar sprouts, from the roots of eignt or ten old trees, which were planted some fifty years ago, I suppose, in a double row, on two sides of the house. At the further end of this yard, beyond the house, a gate opened on the road, and out of this was just then coming a black man. I inquired of him if there was a house, near by, at which I could get accommodations for the night. Beckoned his master'd VIRGINIA. 77 take me In, if I'd ask him. Where was his master? In .the house : I could go right in here (at a place where a panel of the paling had fallen over) and see him, if I wanted to. I asked him to hold my horse, and went in. It was a simple, two-story house, very much like those built by the wealthier class of people in New England villages, from fifty to a hundred years ago, except that the chimneys were carried up outside the walls. There was a porch at the front door, and a small wing at one end, in the rear; from this wing to the other end extended a broad gallery. A dog had been barking at me after I dismounted; and just as I reached the steps of the gallery, a vigorous, middle-aged man, with a rather sullen and suspicious expression of face, came out without any coat on, to see what had excited him. Doubting whether he was the master of the house, I told him that I had come in to inquire if it would be convenient to allow me to spend the night with them. He asked where I came from, where I was going to, and various other questions, until I had given him an epitome of my day's wanderings and adventures ; at the conclusion of which he walked to the end of the gallery to look at my horse ; 'then, without giving me any answer, but muttering indistinctly something about servants, walked into the house, shutting the door behind him! Well, thought I, this is not very overwhelmingly hospitable. What can it mean 1? While I was considering whether he expected me to go with out any further talk--his curiosity being, I judged, satisfied--he came out again, and said, " Reckon you can stay, sir, if you '11 take what we'll give you." (The good man had been in to con sult his wife.) I replied that I would do so, thankfully, and 78 OUR SLAVE STATES. hoped they would not give themselves any unnecessary trouble, or alter their usual family arrangements. I was then invited to come in, but I preferred to see my liorse taken care of first. My host called for " Sam," two or tliree times, and tlien said he reckoned all his " people " had gone off, and he would attend to my horse himself. I offered to assist Mm, and we walked out to the gate, where the negro, not "being inclined to wait for my return, had left Jane fastened to a post. Our liost conducted us to an old square log-cabin, which had formerly been used for curing tobac co, there "being no room for Jane, he said, in the stables proper. Tlie floor of the tobacco-house wTas covered with lumber, old - plows, scythes and cradles, a part of which had to be removed to make room for the filly to stand. She was then induced, with some difficulty, to enter it through a low, square door-way; sad dle and bridle were removed, and she was fastened in a corner by a piece of old plow-line. We then went to a fodder-stuck, and pulled out from it several small bundles of maize leaves. Additional feed and water were promised "when "some of tlie niggers " came in; and, after righting up an old door that had fallen from one hinge, and setting a rail against it to keep it in its place, we returned to the house. My host (whom I will call Mr. Newman) observed that his buildings and fences were a good deal out of order. He had owned the place but a few j^ears, and had not had time to make much improvement about tlie house yet. Entering the mansion, he took me to a large room on the first floor, gave me a cliair; went out and soon returned (now wearing a coat) with two negro girls, one bringing wood and the other some flaming brands. ~ A fire was made with, a great deal of trouble, scolding of the girls, bringing in more brands, and blow- "viRaiNi A. 79 ing with the month. When the room, had been suffocatingly filled with smoke, and at length a strong bright blaze swept steadily up the chimney, Mr. ISTewman again went out with the girls, and I was left alone for nearly an hour, with one interrup tion, when he came in and threw some more wood upon the fire, and said he hoped I would make myself comfortahle. It was a square room, with a door from, the hall on one side, and two windows on each of the other sides. The lower part of the walls was wainscoted, and the upper part, with the ceiling, plas tered and white-washed. The fire-place and mantle-piece were somewhat carved, and were painted black; all the other wood work, lead color. Blue paper curtains covered the windows ; the floor was unearpeted, and the only furniture in the room was some strong plain chairs, painted yellow, and a Connecticut clock, which did not run. The house had evidently been built for a, family of some wealth, and, after having been deserted by them,, had been bought at a bargain by the present resident., who either had not the capital or the inclination to furnish and occupy it appropriately. When ray entertainer called again, he merely opened the door and said, In the words of an order, but in a tone of advice, "Come ! get something to eat!" I followed him out into the gallery, and thence through a door at its end into a, room in the wing--a family room, and a very comfortable, homely room. A most bountifully spread supper-table stood in the centre, at- which was sitting a very neat, pretty little woman, of as silent habits as her husband, but neither bashful nor morose. A very nice little girl sat at her right side, and a peevish, ill-behaved, whin ing glutton of a boy at her left. I was requested to be seated adjoining the little girl, and the master of the house sat opposite SO OUR SLAV ESTATES. me. Tlie fourth, side of tlio table was unoccupied., though a plate and chair were placed there, as if some one else had been ex pected. The two negro girls waited at table, and a negro boy was in the room, who, when I asked for a glass of water, was sent to get it. An. old negro woman also frequently came in from, the kitchen, with hot "biscuit and corn-cake. There was fried fowl, and fried bacon and eggs, and cold ham ; there were preserved peaches, and preserved quinces and grapes ; there was hot wheaten biscuit, and hot short-cake, and hot corn-cake, and hot griddle cakea, soaked in butter ; there was coffee, and there was milk,, sour or sweet, whichever I preferred to drink. I really ate more than I wanted, and extolled the corn-cake and the peach preserve, and asked how they were made ; but I evidently disap pointed my pretty hostess, who said she was afraid there wasn't anything that suited me,--she feared there wasn't anything on the table I could eat; and she was sorry I couldn't make out a supper. And tins was about all she -would say. I tried to get a free conversation started, but I have myself but poor endow ments for such a purpose, and I could obtain Httle more than very laconic answers to my questions. Except from the little girl at my side, whose confidence I gained by taking an opportunity, when her mother was engaged, with young hopeful t'other side the coffee-pot, to give her a great lot of quince and grape, and by several times pouring molasses very freely oil her cakes and bacon; and finally l)y feeding1 Pink out of my hand. (Hopeful had clone this first, and then kicked him away, when he came round to Martha and me.) She told me her name, and that she had got a kitten, and that she hated Pink; and that she went to a Sunday-school at the Court House, and VIR&INIA. . SI that she was going to go to an evcry-day school next winter-- she wasn't big enough to walk so far now, but she would be tlien. But Billy said he didn't mean to go, because he didn't like to, though Billy "was bigger nor she -was, a heap. She reckoned when Billy saw Wash. Baker going past every day, and heard how much fun he had every day with the other boys at the school, he would want to go too, wouldn't he 1 etc., etc. "When supper was ended, I set hack my chair to the wall, and took her on my knee j but after she had been told twice not to trouble the gentleman, and I had testified that she didn't do it, and after several mild hints that I would perhaps find it pleasanter in the sitting-room-- (the chairs in the supper-room were the easiest, being countrymade, low, and seated with undressed calf-skin), she was called to, out of the kitchen, and Mr. Newman, in the form of advice, but with the tone of command, said--going to the door and opening it for me--"Heckon you'd "better walk into the sittin'-room, sir." I walked out at this, and said I would go and look at the filly. Mr. iTewman called " Sam" again, and Sam, having at that moment arrived at the kitchen-door, was ordered to go and take care of this gentleman's horse. I followed Sam to the tobaccohouse? and gave him to know that he would he properly remem bered, for any attentions he could give to Jane. He watered her, and brought her a largo supply of oats in straw, and some maize on the cob; but he could get no litter, and declared there was no straw on the plantation, though the next morning I saw a large quantity in a heap (not a stack), at a little greater distance than he was willing to go for it, I suppose, at a barn on the opposite side of the road. Having' seen her rubbed clean and apparently well contented with her quarters and her supper, I bade her good-night, and returned to the house. 82 OUR, SLAVE STATES.. I did not venture again into the supper-room, "but went to the sitting-room, "where I found Miss Martha Ann and lier kitten; I was having a very good time with her, when her father came in and told lier she was " troubling the gentleman ;" I denied it, and he took a seat by the fire with us, and I soon succeeded in drawing him into a conversation on farming, and the differences in our methods of work at the North and those he was accus tomed to. "WHITE T,ABORING PEOPLE. I learned that there were no white laboring men here who hired themselves out by the month. The poor white people that had to labor for their living, never would work steadily at any employment. " They mostly followed boating"--hiring as Lands on the bateaus that navigate the small streams and canals, bat never for s, longer term at once than a. single trip of a boat, whether that might be long or short. At the end of the trip they were paid by the day. Their -wages were from fifty cents to a dol lar, varying with the demand and individual capacities. They hardly ever worked on farms except in harvest, when they usually received a dollar a day, sometimes more. In bar vest- time, most of the rural mechanics closed their shops and hired out to the farmers at a dollar a day, which would indicate that their ordinary earnings are considerably less than this. At otlier than harvesttime, the poor white people, "who had no trade, would sometimes work for the farmers by the job; not often at any regular agricultural labor, but at getting rails or shingles, or clearing land. He did not know that they were particular about working with negroes, but no white man would ever do certain kinds of VIRGINIA. 83 \vork (siieb. aa taking care of cattle, oi" getting' water or wood to be used in the house), and if yon should ask a, white man. you had hired, to do such things, he would get mad and tell you he wasn't a nigger. Poor white girls never hired out to do servants' work, but they would come and help another white woman about her sewing1 or quilting, and take wages for it. But these girls were not very respectable generally, and it was not agreeable to have them in your house, though there were some very respecta ble ladies that would go out to sew. Farmers' depended almost entirely upon their negroes ; it was only when they were hard pushed by their crops, that they got white hands to help them any. Negroes had commanded suoli high wages lately, to work on railroads and hi tobacco-factories, that farmers were tempted to hire out too many of their people, and to undertake to do too much work with those they retained, and thus they were often driven to employ white men, and to give them very high wages by the day, when they found themselves getting much behind hand with their crops. He had been driven very hard in this way this last season ; he had been so unfortunate as to lose one of his best women, who died in child-bed just before harvest. The loss of the woman and her child, for the,,child had died also, just at that time, came very hard upon him. He would not have taken a thousand dollars of any man's money for them. He had had to hire white men to help him, but they were poor sticks and would be half the time drunk, and you never know what to depend upon with them. One fellow that he had hired, who had agreed to work for him all through harvest, got him to pay him some wages in advaiice, (he said it was to buy him some clothes with, so he could go to meeting, Sunday, at the 84 OUR SLAVE STATES. Court-House,) and went off the next day, right in the middle of harvest, and he never had seen him since. He had lieard of him--ho was on a "boat--but he didn't reckon he should ever get his money again. Of course, he did not see how white laborers were ever going to come into competition with negroes here, at all. You never could depend on white men, and you couldn't drive them any ; they wouldn't stand it. Slaves were the only reliable laborers--you could command them and make, them do what was right. From the manner in which he always talked of the white laboring people, it was evident that, although he placed them in some sort on an equality with himself, and that in his intercourse with them he wouldn't think of asserting for himself any superior dignity, or even feel himself to be patronizing them in not doing so, yet he; all the time, recognized them as a distinct and a rather despicable class, and wanted to have as little to do with them as he conveniently could. I have been once DJ- twice told that the poor white people, meaning- those, I suppose, who bring nothing to market to exchange for money but then- labor, although they may own a cabin and a little furniture, and cultivate land enough to supply themselves with (maize) bread, are worse off in almost all respects than the slaves. They are said to be extremely ignorant and immoral, as well as indolent and unambitious. That their condition is not as imfortunate by any means as that of negroes, however, is most obvious, since from among them, men sometimes elevate themselves to positions and habits of usefulness, and respectability. They are said to " corrupt" the negroes," and to encourage them to steal, or to work for them at uiglit and on Sundays, and to pay them with liquor, and also to constantly VIKG 1NIA. associate licentiously with. them. They seem, nevertheless, more than any other portion of the community, to hate and despise the negroes. BED-TIME. In trie midst of our conversation, one of the black girls had come into the room and stood still with her head dropped forward., staring at me from under her brows, without saying a word. When she had waited, in this way, perhaps two minutes, her master turned to her and asked what she wanted. " Miss Matty says Marta Ann go to "bed now." But Martha Ann refused to budge; after being1 tolcl once or twice by her father to go with Eose, she came to me and lifted up her hands, I supposed to kiss me and go, but when I reached down, she took hold of my shoulders and climbed up on to my knees. Her father seemed to take no notice of this proceeding, but continued talking about guano ; Hose went to a corner of the fire-place, dropped down upon the floor and presently was asleep, leaning her head against the wall. In about half an hour, the other negro girl came to the door, when Mr. Newman abruptly called out, "girl! take that child to bed!" and imme diately got up himself and walked out. Hose roused herself and lifted Martha Ann out of my arms, and carried her oft" fast asloep. Mr. N~ewman returned holding a small candle in his hand, and, without entering the room, stood at the door and said, " I'll show yon your bed if you are ready, sir." As he evidently meant, "I am ready to show you to bed if you will not refuse to go," I followed him up stairs. Into a large room, again, with six windows, with a fire-place, in which a few brands were smoking, with some wool spread thinly 86 OUR S I, .A V 32 STATES. "upon the floor in a corner; with a dozen small bundles of tobacco leaves; with a lady's saddle ; with a deep feather-bed, covered with a bright patch-work quilt, on a maple bedstead, and without a single item of any other furniture whatever. Mi*. _N"ewman asked if I wanted the candle to undress by, I said yes, if he pleased, and waited a moment for him to set it down : as he did not do so I walked towards him, lifting my hand to take it. "]Sfo--I'll hold it," said he, and I then perceived that he had no eandle-stick, but held, the lean little dip in his hand: I remembered also that no candle had been brought into the ^ sitting-room," and that while we were at supper only one candle had stood upon the table, which had been immediately extin guished when we rose, the room being lighted only from the fire. I very quickly undressed and hung my clothes upon a bed post : Mr. Ivewman looked on in silence until I had got into bed, when, with an abrupt " good-night, sir," he went out and shut the door. SETTLING. It was not until after I had consulted Sam the next morning, that I ventured to consider that my entertainment might "be taken as a mere business. transaction, and not as "genuine planter's hospitality," though this had become rather a ridiculous view of it, after a repetition of the supper, in all respects, had been eaten for breakfast, with equal moroseness on the part of my host and equal quietness on the part of his kind-looking little wife. I was, nevertheless, amused at the promptness with which lie replied to my rather hesitating inquiry--what I might pay him for the trouble I had given him--" I reckon a dollar and a quarter will be right, wir." VIIK3-INI A. 87 THE WILDERNESS. I have described, perhaps with, tedious prolixity, what adven tures befell me, and what scenes I passed through in my first day's random riding, for the purpose of giving an idea, of the un cultivated and unimproved--rjither, sadly worn and misused---- condition, of- some parts, and .1 judge, of a very large part, of all Eastern Virginia., and of the isolated, lonely, and dis sociable a-spcct of the dwelling places of a large part of the people. Much the same general characteristics pervade the Slave States, everywhere, except in certain rich regions, or on the banks of some rivers, or in the vicinity of some great routes of travel and transportation, which have occasioned closer settlement or stimu lated public spirit. For hours and hours one has to ride through the unlimited, continual, all-shadow ing, all-embracing- forest, fol lowing roads, in the making of which no more labor has been given than was necessary to remove the timber which would obstruct the passage of wagx>ns ; and even for days and days he may sometimes travel, and see never two dwellings of mankind within sight .of each other; only, at long distances, often several.miles asunder, these isolated plantation patriarchates. If a traveler leaves the main roacl to go any distance, it is not ttrbe" imagined how diffi cult it is for him to find his way from 'one house to any other in particular; his only safety is in the fact that, unless there are mountains or swamps in the way, lie is not likely to go many miles upon any wagon or horse track without coming to some white man's habitation. THE MEETING-HOUSE. The "country passed through, in the early part of my second SS O U II SLATE STATES. day's ride, was very similar in general characteristics to that I have already described; only that a rather larger portion of it was cleared, and plantations were more frequent. About eleven, o'clock I crossed a bridge and came to the meeting-house I had "been expecting to reach hy that hour the previous day. It was in the midst of the woods, and the small clearing around it was still dotted with the stamps of the trees ont of whose trunks it had been built; for it was a log structure. In. one end there was a singie square port, closed by a sliding shutter, in the other end were two doors, both standing open. In front of the doors, a rude scaffolding had "been made of poles and saplings, extending out twenty feet from the wall of the house, and this had been covered with boughs of trees, the leaves now wither ed ; a few benches, made of split trunks of trees, slightly hewn with the axe, were arranged under this arbor, as if the religious service was sometimes conducted on the outside in preference to the interior of the edifice. Looking in, I saw that a gallery or loft extended from over the doors, across about one-third the length of the house, access to which was had by a ladder. At the op posite end was a square, impainted pulpit, and on the floor were rows of rude benches. The house was sufficiently lighted "by crevices between the upper logs. A TOBACCO PLANTATION. Half an hour after this I arrived at the negro-quarters--a lit tle hamlet of ten or twelve small and dilapidated cabins. Just beyond them was a plain farm-gate, at which several negroes were standing ; one of them, a well-made man, with an intel ligent countenance and prompt manner, directed me how to find my way to his owner's house. It was still nearly a mile distant; viRaiNiA. 89 and yet, until I arrived in its immediate vicinity., I saw 110 culti vated field, and but one clearing-. In the edge of tliis clearing, a number of negroes, male and female, lay stretched out upon tlie ground near a small smoking charcoal pit. Their master after wards informed me that they were burning charcoal for the planta tion bla,eks7nith, using the time- allowed them for holidays--from Christinas to Xew Year's--to earn a little money for themselves in this way. He paid them by the bushel for it. When I said that I supposed he allowed them to take what wood they chose for this purpose, he replied that he had five hundred acres cov ered with wood, which he would be very glad to have any one burn, or clear off in any way. Cannot some Yankee contrive a method of concentrating some of the valuable properties of this old-field pine, BO that tticy may be profitably "brought into use in more cultivated regions ? Charcoal is now brought to N"ew York from Virginia; but when made from pine it Is not very valuable, and will only bear transportation from the banks of the navigable rivers, whence it can be shipped, at one movement, to New York. Turpentine does not flow in sufficient quantity from, this variety of the pine to be profitably collected, and for lumber it is of very small value. Mr. W.'s house was an old family mansion, which he had him self remodeled in the Grecian style, and furnished with a large wooden portico. An oak forest had originally occupied the ground where it stood; but this having- been cleared and the soil worn out in. cultivation by the previous proprietors, pine woods now surrounded it in every direction, a square of a few acres only being1 kept clear immediately about it. A number of the old oaks still stood in the rear of the house, and, until Mr. ~YY. commenced his improvements, there had been some 90 O U K. S L A V E STATES. in. its front. These, however, he had cut away, as interfering with the symmetry of his grounds, and in place of them had planted ailanthus trees in parallel rows. On three sides of the outer part of the cleared square there was a row of large and comfortable-looking negroquarters, stables, tobacco-houses, and o.ther offices, built of logs. Mr. "W. was one of the few large planters, of his vicinity, who still made the culture of tobacco their principal business. He said there was a general prejudice against tobacco, in all the tide water region of the State, because it was through the culture of tobacco that the once fertile soils had been impoverished; but he did not believe that, at the present value of negroes, their labor could be applied to the culture of grain, with any profit, except under peculiarly favorable circumstances. Possibly, the use of guano might make wheat a paying crop, but he still doubted. He bad not used it, himself. Tobacco required fresh land, and was rapidly exhausting, but it returned more money, for the labor used upon it, than anything else; enough more, in his opinion, to pay for the wearing out of the land. If he was wellpaid for it, he did not know why he should not wear out his land. His tobacco-fields were nearly all in a distant and lower part of his plantation ; land which had been neglected before his time, in a great measure, because it had been sometimes flooded, aud was, much of the year, too wet for cultivation. He was draining and clearing it, and it now brought good cvops. He had had an Irish gang draining for hhn, by contract. He thought a negro could do, twice as much, work, in a dav, as an Irishman. He had not stood, over them, and seen them at ivork, br.t. judged entirely from the amount they accomplished: he VIRGINIA . 91 thought a, good gang of negroes would have got on twice as fast. He was sure they must have "trifled" a great deal, or they would have accomplished more than they had. He complained much, also, of their sprees and quarrels. I asked why he should employ Irishmen, in preference to doing the work witli bis own hands. " It's dangerous work (unhealthy"?), and a negro's life is too valuable to be risked at it. If a negro dies, it's a considerable loss, you know," He afterwards said that his negroes never worked so hard as to tire themselves--always were lively, and ready to go off on a frolic at night. Ho did not think they ever did half a fair day's work. They could not he made to work hard: they never would lay out their strength freely, and it was impossible to make them do it. This is just what I have thought when I have seen slaves at work--they seem to go through the motions of labor without putting- strength into them. They keep their powers in reserve for their own use at night, perhaps. Mr. "W. also said that he' cultivated only the coarser and lower-priced sorts of tobacco, because the finer sorts required more pains-taking and discretion than it was possible to make a large gang of negroes use. " You can make a nigger -work," he said, " but you cannot make him think" Although Mr. W. was very wealthy (or, at least, would be considered so anywhere at the North), and was a gentleman, of education, his style of living was very farmer-like, and thoroughly Southern. On their plantations, generally, the Virginia gentlemen seem to drop their full-dress and con strained town-habits, and to live a free, rustic, shoo ting-jacket life. We dined in a room that extended out, rearwardly, from 92 DTK S TJ A V E STATES. the house, and which, in a Northern establish in en t, would have been the kitclien. The cooking was done in a detaclied logeabin, and. the dishes "brought some distance, through the open ulr, by the servants. The cmter door was left constantly open, though there was a fire in an enormous old fire-place, large enough, if it could Iia,ve.. been distributed sufficiently, to have lasted a New York seamstress the best part of the winter. By the door, there was indiscriminate admittance to negrochildren and fox-hoiuids, and, on an average, there were four of these, grinning or licking their chops, on either side of of my chair, a]] the time I was at the table, A stout woman acted as head waitress, employing two handsome little mulatto boys as her aids in communicating with the kitchen, from which relays of hot corn-bread, of an excellence quite new to me, \yere brought at frequent intervals.* There was no "other bread, and but one vegetable served--sweet potato, roasted in ashes, and this, I thought, was the best sweet potato, also, that I ever had eaten; "but there were four preparations of swine's flesh, besides fried fowls, fried eggs, cold roast turkey, and opossum, cooked, I know not how, but it somewhat resembled baked sucking-pig. The only beverages on the table were milk and whisky. I was pressed to stay several days with Mr. W., and should have been glad to have accepted such hospitality, had not another engagement prevented. When I was about to leave, VIRGINIA 93 an old servant was directed to get a horse, and go with me, as guide, to the rail-road station at Col. Gillin's. He followed behind me, and I had great difficulty in inducing him to ride near enough to converse with me. I wished to ascertain from him how old the different stages of the old-field forest-growth, by the side of our road, might be ; but, for a long time, he was, or pretended to be, unable to comprehend my questions. When he did so, the most accurate information he could give me was, that he reckoned such a field (in which the pines were now some sixty feet high) had been planted with tobacco the year his old master bought him. He thought he was about twenty years old then, and that now he was forty. He had every appearance of being seventy. He frequently told me there was no need for him to go any farther, and that it was a dead, straight road to the station, without any forks. As he appeared very eager to return, I was at length foolish enough to allow myself to be prevailed upon to dispense with his guidance; gave him a quarter of a dollar for bis time that I had employed, and went on alone. The road, which for a short distance further was plain enough, soon began to ramify, and, in half an hour, we were stumbling along a dark wood-path, looking eagerly for a house. At length, seeing one across a large clearing, we went through a long lane, opening gates and letting down bars, until we met two negroes, riding a mule, who were going to the plantation near the school-house, which we had seen the clay before, following them thither, we knew the rest of the way (Jane gave a bound and neighed, when we struck the old road, showing that she had been lost, as well as I, up to the moment). Tt was twenty minutes after the hour given in the time-table 94 OUR SLAVE STATES. for the passage of the train, when I readied the station, but it had not arrived; nor did it make its appearance for a quarter of an hour longer; so I had plenty of time to deliver Tom's wife's message and take leave of Jane. I am sorry to say she appeared very indifferent, and seemed to think a good deal more of Tom than of me. Mr. "W. had told me that the train would, probably, be half an hour behind its advertised time, and that I had no need to ride with haste, to reach it. I asked Gol. Gillin if it would be safe to always calculate on the train being half an hour late: he said it would not; for, although usually that much behind the time-table, it was sometimes half an hour ahead of it. So those, who would be safe, had commonly to wait an hour. People, therefore, who wished to go not more than twenty miles from home, would find it more convenient, and equally expeditions, taking all things into account, to go in their own conveyances--there being but few who lived so near the station that they would not have to employ a horse and servant to get to it. A FBEE-LABOJi FARM. ----------------------, ------. I have been visiting a farm, cultivated entirely by free-labor. The proprietor told me that he was first led to disuse slave-labor, not from any economical considerations, but because he had become convinced that there was an essential wrong in holding men in forced servitude with any other purpose than to benefit them alone, and because he was not willing to allow his own children to be educated as slave-masters. His father had been a large slave-holder, and he felt very strongly the bad influ ence it had had on his own character. He wished me t-o' be VIRGINIA. 95 satisfied that Jefferson Littered a great truth when he asserted that slavery was more pernicious to the white race than the "black. Although, therefore, a chief part of his inheritance had been in slaves, he had liberated them all. Most of them had, by his advice, gone to Africa. These he had frequently heard from. Except a child that had been drowned, they were, at his last account, all alive, in general good health, and satisfactorily prospering-. Jle had lately received a letter from one of them, who told him that he was " tt-ying to preach the GJ-ospel," and who had evidently greatly improved, both intellectually anil morally, since lie left here. With regard to those going North, and the common opinion that they encoun tered much misery, and would be much better off here, he said that it entirely depended on the general character and habits of the individual; it was true of those who were badly brought up, and who had acquired indolent and vicious habits, especially if they were drunkards, but, if of some intelligence and well-trained, they generally represented themselves to be successful and con tented. He mentioned two remarkable cases, that had come under his own observation, of this kind. One was that of a man who had been free, but, by some fraud and informality of his papers, was reenslaved. He ran away, and afterwards negotiated, by cor respondence, with liis master, and purchased his freedom. This man lie had accidentally met, fifteen years afterwards, in a North ern city; he was engaged in profitable and increasing business, and showed him, by his books, that he wns possessed of property to the amount of ten thousand dollars. He was living a great deal more comfortably and wisely than ever his old master had done. The other case was that of a colored woman, who had ou it s L, j* v E STATES. obtained her freedom, and who became apprehensive that she also was about to "be fraudulently made a slave again. She fled to Philadelphia, where she was nearly starved, at first. A little girl, who heard her begging in the streets to be allowed to work for bread, told her that her mother was wanting some washing done, arid she followed her home. The mother, not knowing her, was afraid to ti-ust her with the articles to be washed. She prayed so earnestly for the job, however--suggesting that she might "be locked into a room until she had completed it--that it was given her. So she commenced life in Philadelphia. Ten years afterwards he had accidentally met her there ; she recognized him imme diately, recalled herself to his recollection, manifested the greatest joy at seeing him, and asked him to come to her house, which, lie found a handsome three-story building, furnished really with ele gance ; and she pointed out to him, from the window, three houses in the vicinity that she owned and rented. She showed great anxiety to have her children well educated, and was employing the best instructors for them which she could procure in Phila delphia. This gentleman, notwithstanding his anti-slavery sentiments, by no means favors the running away of slaves, and thinks the Abolitionists have done immense harm to the cause they have at heart. He wishes Northerners would mind their business, and leave Slavery alone, say but little about it--nothing in the present condition of affairs at the South--and never speak of it but in a kind and calm manner. He would not think it right to return a fugitive slave; bnt ho would never assist one to escape. He has several times purchased slaves, generally such as his neighbors were obliged to sell, and who would otherwise have VIRGINIA. 97 been, taken South, This lie had "been led to do by the solicita tion of some of their relatives. Tie had retained them in his pos session until their labor had in some degree returned their cost to him, and he could afford to provide them with the means of going to Africa or the North, and a small means of support after their arrival, Having received some suitable training hi his fami ly, they had, without exception, been successful,, and had fre quently sent him money to purchase the freedom of relatives or friends they had left in slavery. He considered the condition of slaves to have much improved since the Revolution, aaid very perceptibly daring the last twenty years. The original stock of slaves, the imported Africans, he observed, probably required to be governed with much greater severity, and very little humanity was exercised or thought of with regard to them. The slaves of the present day are of a higher character ; in fact, he did not think more than, half of them, were full-blooded Africans. Public sentiment condemned the man who treated his slaves with cruelty. The owners were mainly men of some cultivation, and felt a family attachment to their slaves, many of whom had been the playmates of their boy hood. Nevertheless, they were frequently punished severely, under the impulse of temporary passion, often without delibera tion, and on unfounded suspicion. This was especially the case vvhere they were left to overseers, who, though sometimes men of intelligence and piety, were more often coarse, brutal, and licentious; drinking men, wholly unfitted for the responsibility imposed on them. He had read " Uncle Tom's Cabin;" mentioned several points in which Ije thought it wrong--that Uncle Tom was too highly painted, for instance; that such a character could not exist in, OUR SLAVE STATES. or spring out of Slavery, and that no gentleman of Kentucky or Virginia would liave allowed himself to be in the position with, a slave-dealer In which Mr. Shelby is represented--but he acknowledged that cases of cruelty and suffering', equal to any desci-ibed in it, might be found. In his own neighborhood, some time ago, a man had been whipped to death ; and he re-collected several that had been maimed for life, by harsh and hasty pun ishment ; but the whole community were indignant when such things occurred, and any man guilty of them would be without associates, except of similar character. The opinions of this gentleman must not, of course, be con sidered as representative of those of the South in general, by any means ; but as to facts, he Is a competent, and, I believe, a wholly candid and unprejudiced witness. He is much respected, and on terms of friendship with all his neighbors, though they do not like his views on this subject. He told me? however, that one of them, becoming convinced of their correctness some time ago, freed his slaves, and moved to Ohio. As to " Uncle Tom," it is generally criticised very severely, and Its representations of Slavery indignantly denied. I observe that it is not placarded outside the booksellers' stores, though the whole fleet of gun boats that have been launched after it show their colors bravely. It must, however, be a good deal read here, as I judge from the frequent allusions I hear made to it. With regard to the value of slave-labor, this gentleman is confident that, at present, he has the advantage in employing freemen instead of it. It has not been so until of late, the price of slaves having much advanced within ten years, while immigration has made free white laborers more easy to be pro cured, VIRGINIA. 99 He lias heretofore had some difficulty in obtaining hands when lie needed them, and has suffered a good deal from the demoral izing influence of adjacent slave-labor, the men, after a few months' residence, inclining to follow the customs of the slaves with regard to the amount of work they should do in a day, or their careless mode of operation. He has had white and black Virginians, sometimes Germans, and latterly Irish, Of all these, he has found the Irish on the whole the best. The poorest have been the native white Virginians ; next, the free blacks : and though there have been exceptions, he has not generally paid these as high as one hundred dollars a year, and has thought them less worth their wages than any he has had. At present, he has two white natives and two free colored men., but both the latter were brought up in his family, and are worth twenty dollars a year more than the average. The free black, he thinks, is generally worse than the slave, and so is the poor white man. . He also employs, at present, four Irish hands, and is expecting two more to arrive, who have been, recommended to him, and sent for "by those he has. He pays the Irishmen $120 a year, and boards them. He has had them for S^lOO ; "but these are all excellent men,, and well worth their price. They are less given to drinking than any ynen he has ever had; and one of them first suggested im provements to him in his farm, that he is now carrying out with prospects of considerable advantage. House-maids, Irish girls, he pays 53 and $6 a month. He does not apprehend that in future he shall have any diffi culty in obtaining steady and reliable men, that will accomplish much more work than any slaves. There are some operations, such as carting and spreading dung, and all work with the fork, spade, or shovel, at which his Irishmen will do, he thinks, over 100 OUR SLAVE STATES. fifty per cent, more in a day than any negroes lie has ever known. On the whole, lie Is satisfied that at present free-labor is more profitable than slave-labor, though his success is not so evident that lie would be willing to have attention particularly called to it. His farm, moreover, is now in a transition state from, one system of husbandry to another, and appearances are temporarily more unfavorable on that account. The wages paid for slaves, when they are hired for agricultural labor, do not differ at present., he says, from those which he pays for his free laborers. In both cases the hiring party boards the laborer, but, in addition to money and board, the slave-employer has to furnish clothing, and is subject, without redress, to any losses which may result from the carelessness or malevolence of the slave. He also has to lose his time if he is unwell, or when from any cause he is absent or unable to work. The slave, if he is indisposed to work, and especially if he is not treated well, or does not like the master who has hired him, will sham sickness--even make himself sick or lame--that he need not work. But a more serious loss frequently arises, when the slave, thinking he is worked too hard, or being angered "by pun ishment or unkind treatment, " getting the sulks," takes to " the swamp," and comes back when lie has a mind to. Often this will not be till the year is up for which he is engaged, when he will return to his owner, who, glad to find his property safe, and that it has not died in the swamp, or gone to Canada, forgets to punish him, and immediately sends him for another year to a new master. " Btit, meanwhile^ how does the negro support life in the swamp ?" I asked. " Oh, he gets sheep and pigs and calves, and fowls and VIRGINIA. 101 turkeys ; sometimes they will kill a small cow. We have often scon tlie fires, where they were cooking- them, through the woods, in the swamp yonder. If it is cold, he will crawl under a fodderstack, or go into the cabins with some of the other negroes, and in the same way, you see, he can get all the corn, or almost anything else he wants. "He steals them from, his master?" " From, any one; frequently from me. I have had many a sheep taken hy them." " It is a common thing1, then 1" " Certainly, It is, very common, and the loss is sometimes exceedingly provoking. One of my neighbors here was going to build, and hired two mechanics for a year. Just as lie was ready to pnt his house np, the two men, taking offense at something, both ran away, and did not come back at all, till their year was out, and then their owner immediately hired them out again to another man." These negroes " in the swamp," he said, were often hunted after, but it was very difficult to find them, and, if caught, they would run again, and the other negroes would hide and assist them. Dogs to track them he had never known to be used in Virginia. EECREATICXN' AND LUXURY AMONG THE SLAVES. SATURDAY, Dec. 25. From Christmas to N"ew-Year's Day, most of the slaves, except house servants, enjoy a freedom from labor; and Christmas is especially holiday, or Saturnalia, with them. The young ones began last night' firin do not observe that they are engaged in aiiK^&tfe- \Jaimiisement 102 OUR SLAVE STATES. to-day; tlie older ones are generally getting drunk, and. making lousiness for the police. I have seen large gangs coming in from the country, and these contrast much in their general appearance with the town negroes. The latter arc dressed expensively, and frequently more elegantly than the whites. They seem to be spending money freely, and I observe that they, and even the slaves that wait upon me at the hotel, often have watches, and other articles of value. The slaves have a, good many ways of obtaining " spending money," which., though in law belonging to their owner, as the property of a son under age docs to his father, they are never dispossessed of, and use for their own gratification, with even less restraint than a wholesome regard for their health and moral condition may be thought to require. A Richmond paper, com plaining of the liberty allowed to slaves in this respect, as calculated to foster an insubordinate spirit, speaks of their " champagne suppers." The police broke into a gambling cellar a few nights since, and found about twenty negroes at "high play," with all the usual accessories of a first-class " Hell." It is mentioned that, among the number taken to the watch-house, and treated with lashes the next morning, there were some who had previously enjoyed a high reputation, for piety, and others of a very elegant OF foppish appearance. Passing two negroes in the street, I heard the following: " ------ Workin' in a tobacco factory all tie year roun', an' come Christmas, only twenty dollars! Workin' mighty hard, too--up to 12 o'clock o' night very often--an* then to liab a nigger oberseah !" "A nigger ]" " Yes----dat's it, ycr see. Woiildn't care if 'twarnt for dat. "rJothin' "but a dirty nigger! orderin' 'round, jes' as if lio was a wite man !" It is the custom of tobacco manufacturers to liire slaves and free negroes at a certain rate of wages per year. A task of 45 Ibs. per clay is given them to work up, and all that they choose to do more than this they are paid for--payment "being made once a fortnight; and invariably this over-wages is used by the slave for himself, and is usually spent in drinking, licentiousness and gambling. The man was grumbling that he had saved but ^20 to spend at the holidays. One of the manufacturers offered to show me, by his books, that nearly all gained by overwork $5 a month, many $20, and some as much as $28. INGENUITY OP THE NEG-KO. Sitting with a company of smokers last night, one of them, to show me the manner in which a slave of any ingenuity or cunning would manage to avoid working for his master's profit, narrated the following anecdote. He was executor of an estate in which, among other negroes, there was one very smart man, who, he knew perfectly -well, ought to be earning for the estate 81 50 a. year, and who could do it if he chose, yet whose wages for a year, being- let out by the day or job, had amounted to but 818, while he had paid for medical attendance upon him $4o. Having failed in every other way to make him earn anything-, he proposed to him that he should purchase his freedom and go to Philadelphia, where he had a brother. He told him if he would earn a certain sum ($400 I believe), and pay it over to the estate for himself, he would give him his free papers. The man agreed to the arrangement, and by his overwork in a tobacco factory, and some assistance from his free brother, soon paid the sum agreed upon, 104 OUR SLAVE STATES. and was sent to Philadelphia. A few weeks afterwards ho met him in the street, and asked him why he had returned. " Oh, I don't like dat Philadelphy, massa; ant no chance for colored folks dere; spec' if I'd been a runaway, do wite folks dere take care o' me ; but I couldn't git anythin' to do, so I jis borrow ten dollar of my broder, and cum back to old Virgirmy." " Bat you know the law forbids your return. I wonder that you are not afraid to be seen here; I should think Mr. ------ (an officer of police) would take you up." " Oh! I look out for dat, Massr, I juss hire myself out to Mr. ------ himself, ha! ha! He tink I your boy.'"' And so it jn-oved, the officer, thinking that he was permitted to hire himself out, and tempted by the low wages at which he offered himself, had neglected to ask for his written permission, and had engaged him for a year. He still lived with the officer, and was an active, healthy, good servant to him. /' QUALITIES AS A LABOBEIt. A well-informed capitalist and slave-holder remarked, that negroes could not be employed in cotton factories. I said that I understood they were so in Charleston, and some other places at the South. " It may be so, yet" he answered, " but they will, have to give it up." The reason was, he said, that the negro could never be trained to exercise judgment; he cannot be made to use his mind; he always depends on machinery doing its own work, and cannot be made to watch it. Pie neglects it until something is broken or there is great waste. " We have tried reward and punishments, but it makes no difference. It's his nature and you cannot VIRGINIA. 10-5 change it. All men are indolent and have a disinclination io labor, but this is a great deal stronger in the African race than in any other. In working niggers, we must always calculate that they will not labor at all except to avoid punishment? and they will never do more than just enough, to save themselves from being- punished, and no amount of punishment will prevent their working carelessly and indifferently. It always seems on the plantation as if they took pains to break all the tools and spoil all the cattle that they possibly can, even when they know they'll be directly punished for it/' As to rev/ards, he said, ' ; They only want to support life, they v,'ill not work for anything more j and in tins country it would bo hard to prevent their getting that." I thought this opinion of the power of rewards was not exactly confirmed by the narra tive we had just heard, but I said nothing. " If you could move," he continued, " all the white people from the whole sea board district of Virginia and give it up to the negroes that are on it now, just leave them to themselves, in ten years time there would not be an aero of land cultivated, and nothing would be produced, except what grew spontaneously." The Hon. Willoughby Newton, by the way, seems to think that if it had not been for the introduction of guano, a similar deso lation would have soon occurred without the Africanization of the country, rle is reported to have said: " I look upon blie introduction of guano, and the success attending its application to our barren lands, . in the light of a special interposition of Divine Providence, to save the northern neck of Virginia from reverting entirely into its former state of wilderness and utter desolation. Until the discovery of guano--more valuable to us than the mines of California-- 106 OUR. SLAVE STATES. I looked upon the possibility of renovating our soil, of ever bringing it to a point capable of producing remunerating crops, as utterly hopeless. Our up-lands were all worn out, and our "bottom-lands fast failing, and if it had not been for guano, to revive our last hope, a few years more and the whole country must have been deserted by'all who desired to increase their own wealth- or advance the cause of civilization by a proper culti vation of the earth." IMPROVEMENT OP THR NEGKO IN SLAVERY. ' But are they not improving f said I; " that is a- point in which I am much interested, and I should be glad to know what is your observation'? Have they not, as a race, improved during the last hundred years, do you not think?" " Oh, yes indeed, very greatly. During my time--I can remember how they were forty years ago--they have improved two thousand per cent. ! Don't you think so 1" he asked another gentleman? " Yes ; certainly." " And you may find them now, on the isolated old plantations in the back country, just as I recollect them when I was a boy, stupid and moping, and with no more intelligence than when they first came from Africa. But all about where the country is much settled theii: condition is vastly ameliorated. They are treated, much better, they are fed better, and they have much greater educational privileges." EDUCATIONAL riilVII-EGES. "Educational privileges?" I asked, in surprise. " I mean by preaching and religious instruction. They have VIRGINIA. 3 07 the Bible read to them a great deal, and there Is preach ing for them all over tlie country. They have preachers of their own; right smart ones they are, too, some of them.'' " !Do they ?" said I. " I thought that was not allowed by law." " Well, it is not--that is, they are not allowed to have meet ings without some white man is present. They must not preach unless a white man hears what they say. However, they do. On my plantation, they always have a meeting on Sundays, and I have sometimes, when I have been there, told my overseer,--' You must go iip there to the meeting, you know the law requires it;* and he would start as if he was going, but would just look in and go by; he wasn't going to wait for them." A DISTINGUISHED DIVINE. Ho then spoke of a minister, whom lie owned, and described him as a very intelligent man. He knew almost the whole of the Bible by heart. He was a fine-looking man---a fine head and a very large frame. He had been a sailor, and had been in New Orleans and New York, and many foreign ports. " ile could have left me at any time for twenty years, if he had wished to," ho said. " I asked him once how he would like to live in New York? Oh, he did not like New York at all! nigg-ers were not treated well there--there was more distinction made between them and white folks than there was here, ' Oh, dey ain't no place in de worl like Ole Virginny for niggers, massa,' says he." Another gentleman gave similar testimony. 108 OUR SLAVE STATES. HOW THEY ARE FED. I said I supposed that they were much better off, more improved intellectually, and more kindly treated in Virginia than, further South. He said I was mistaken in both respects---- that in Louisiana, especially, they were more intelligent, hecause the amalgamation of the races was much greater, and they \vere treated with more familiarity by the whites; besides which, the laws of Louisiana were much more favorable to them. ITor instance, they required the planter to give slaves 200 pounds of pork a year: and he gave a very apt anecdote, showing the effect of this law, "but which, at the same time, made it evident that a Virginian may be accustomed to neglect providing sufficient food for his force, and that they sometimes suffer greatly for -want of it. I was assured, however, that this was very rare--that, generally, the slaves were well pro vided for--always allowed a sufficient quantity of meal, and, generally, of pork--were permitted to raise pigs and poultry, and in summer could always grow as many vegetables as they wanted. It was observed, however, that they frequently neglect to provide for themselves in this way, and live mainly on meal and bacon. If a man does not provide well for his slaves, it soon becomes known, he gets the name of a " nigger killer," and loses the respect of the community. The general allowance of food was thought to he a peck and a half of meal, and three pounds of bacon a week. This, it was observed, is as much meal as they can cat, but they would be glad to have more bacon; sometimes they receive four pounds, but it is oftener that they get less than three. It is distributed to them on Saturday nights; or, on the better managed planta tions, sometimes, on Wednesday, to prevent their using it ex- V I R a I KTI A . 109 travagantly, or selling it for whisky on Sunday. This distribu tion is called the "drawing," and is made by the overseer to all tbe heads of families or single negroes. Except on the smallest ' plantations, where the cooking1 is done in the house of tlie proprietor, there is a cook-house, furnished with a larg-o coppor for boiling, and an oven. Every night the negroes take their "mess," for the next day's breakfast and dinner, to the cook, to be prepared for the nest day. Custom varies as to the time it is served out to them; sometimes at morning and noon, at other times at noon and night. Each negro marks his meat by cuts, so that be shall know it from the rest, and they observe each other's rights with regard to this; punctili ously. After breakfast has been eaten early 5n the cabins, at sunrise or a little before in. winter, and perhaps a little later in summer, they go to the field. At noon dinner is brought to them, and, unless tbe work presses, they are allowed two hours' rest. Very punctually at sunset they stop work and arc at liberty, except that a squad is detached, once a week for shelling corn, to go to the mill for tbe nest week's drawing of meal. Thus they work in the field about eleven hours a day on an average. Keturning to tb"fj cabins, wood '' ought to have been" carted for them; but if it has not been, they then go to the woods and " tote" it home for themselves. They then, make a fire--a big, blazing fire at this season, for tbe supply of fuel is unlimited--and cook their own supper, wThich will be a bit of bacon fried., often with eggs, corn-bread baked in the spider after the bacon, to absorb the fat, and perhaps some sweet potatoes roasted in the ashes. Imme diately after supper they go to sleep, often lying on the floor or a bench in preference to a bed. About two o'clock they very 110 O TJ It. SLAVE STATES. generally rouse up and cook and eat, or eat cold, what they call their " inornin' "bit;" then sleep again till breakfast. I think the slaves generally (no one denies that there are exceptions) have plenty to eat; probably are fed better than the proletarian class of any other part of the world, 1 think that they generally save from their ration of meal. My in formant said that commonly as much as five bushels of meal was sent to town by his hands every week, to be sold for them. Upon inquiry, he almost always found that it belonged to only two or three individuals, who had traded for it with the rest; he added, that too often the exchange was for whisky, which, against his rules, they obtained of some rascally white people in,the neighborhood, and kept concealed. They were very fond of whisky, and sometimes much injured themselves with it. To show me liow well they were supplied with eggs, he said that once a vessel came to anchor, becalmed, off his place, and the cap tain came to him and asked leave to purchase some eggs of his people. He gave him permission, and called the cook to collect them for him. The cook asked how many she should bring1. " Oh, all you can get," he answered--and she returned after a, time, with, several boys assisting her, bringing nearly two bushels, all the property of the slaves, and which they \vcre willing tcT sell at four cents a dozen. One of the smokers explained to me that it is very bad economy, not to allow an abundant supply of food to "a man's force." The negroes are fond of good living, and, if not well provided for, know how to provide for themselves. It is, also, but simple policy to have them well lodged and clothed. If they do not have comfortable cabins and sufficient clothing, they VIRGIN I A. Ill will take cold, and lie laid up. He lost a very valuable negro, once, from having neglected to provide liim with slices. LODGINGS. The houses of the slaves a.re usually log-cabins, of various degrees of comfort and commoclionsness. At one end there is a great open fire-place, which is exterior to the wall of the house, being made of clay in an mclosiwjs, about eight feet square and high., of logs. The chimney^,Js sometimes of "brick., but more commonly of lath or split sticks, laid up like log-work and plastered with mud. They enjoy great roaring fires, and, as the common fuel is pitch pine, the cabin, at night when the door is open, seen from a distance, appears like a fierce furnace. The chimneys often catch fire, and the cabin is destroyed. Very little precaution can he taken against this danger.* Several cabins are placed near together, and they are called " the quarters." On a plantation of moderate size there will be hut one "quarters." The situation chosen for it has reference to convenience of obtaining water from springs and fuel from the woods. On some of the James Kivcr plantations there are larger houses, boarded and made ornamental. In these, eight families, each having a distinct sleeping-room and look-up ich annoyed by fieus. Believin > family were asleep, he raised EL plank in ig an armful of shucks, scattered them on in. The consequence was, that the cabin lighted the five, was burned to death."--Jov.rnal of Commerce. 112 OUR. SLAVE STATES. closets, and every two having a common kitchen or living-room, are accommodated. CLOTHING. As to the clothing of the slaves on the plantations., they are said to he usually furnished "by their owners or masters, every year, each with a coat and troiisers, of a coarse woolen or woolen and cotton stuff (mostly made, especially for this purpose, In. Providence, it. I.), for Winter, trousers of cotton osnahurghs for Summer, sometimes with a jacket also of the same; two pairs of strong shoes, or one pair of strong hoots and one of lighter shoes for harvest; three shirts; one blanket, and one felt hut. The women have two dresses of striped cotton, three shifts, two pairs of shoes, etc. The women lying-in are kept at knitting short sacks, from cotton which, in Southern Virginia, is usually raised, for this purpose, on the farm, and these are also given to the negroes. They also purchase clothing for themselves, and, I notice especially, are well supplied with hand kerchiefs which the men frequently, and the women nearly al ways, wear on their heads. On Sundays and holidays they usually look very smart, hut when at work, very ragged and slovenly. At the conclusion of our bar-room session, some time after midnight, as we were retiring to our rooms, our progress up stairs and along the corridors was several times impeded, by negroes lying fast asleep, in their usual clothes only, upon the floor. I asked why they were not abed, and was answered by a gentleman, that negroes never wanted to go to bed; they always preferred to sleep upon the floor. VIRGINIA. 113 FRATERNITY. As I was walking in the outskirts of the town tliis morning1, I saw squads of negro and white boys together, pitching pennies and firing crackers in complete fraternization. The white boys manifested no superiority, or assumption of it, over the dark ones. An old, palsied negro-woman, very thinly and very raggedly clad, met me and spoke to me. I could not, from the trembling incolierenoy of her voice, understand what she said, but she was evidently hogging, and I never saw a more pitiable object of charity at the North. She was, perhaps, a free person, with no master and no system to provide for her. I saw, for the first time iii my life, two or three young white women smoking tobacco in clay pipes. Urom their manner ifc was evidently a well-formed habit, and one which they did not suspect there was occasion for them to practice clandestinely, or be ashamed of. RELIGIOUS CONDITION. With regard to the moral and religious condition of the slaves, I cannot, either from what I observe, or from what is told me, consider it in any way gratifying. They* are forbidden by law to meet together for worship, or for the purpose of mutual improvement. In the cities, there are churches especially for them, in which the exercises are conducted by white clergymen. In the country, there is usually a service, after that for the whites especially, in all the clmrches, wliich, by the way, are not very thickly scattered. In one parish, about twenty miles from llicliinond, I was told that the colored congregation in the afternoon is much smaller than that of the whites in the morning; and it 114 O tT R S L A V E S T A T E S . was thought not more tliaii one-fifth, of the negroes living within a convenient distance were in tlic habit of attending; it; and of these many came late, and many more slept through the greater part of the service. A goodly proportion of them, I am told, "profess religion," and are received into the fellowship of the churches ; hut it is evident, of the greater part even of these, that their idea of reli gion, and the standard of morality which they deem consistent witli a "profession" of it, is very degraded. That they are sub ject to intense excitements, often really maniacal, which they consider to be religious, is true; but as these are described, I cannot see that they indicate anything hut a miserable system of superstition, the more painful that it employs some forms and words ordinarily connected with true Christianity. A Virginia correspondent of the A7. Y. Times, writing upon the general religious condition, of the State, and of the comparative strength and usefulness of the different churches, says : "The Baptists also number (in Eastern Virginia) 44,000 colored members. This makes a greut difference. Negroes join the chui-eh --perhaps in a great majority of cases--with no ideas of religion. I have but little confidence in their religious professions. Many of them I hope are vcr^- pious ; but many of them arc great scoundrels-- perhaps the great majority of them--regardless of their church pro fession as a rule of conduct. They are often baptized in great numbers, and the Baptist Church (so exemplary In so much) Is to blame, I fear, in the ready admission it gives to the negroes. " The Baptist Church generally gets the negroes--where there arc no Baptists, the Methodist. Immersion strikes their fancy. Jt Is a palpable, overt act, that their imagination can take hold of. The ceremony mystically impresses them, as the ceremonies of Roman ism affect the devotees of that connection. They come up out of the water, and believe they see ' the Lord.' In their religion, negroes are excessively superstitious. They have all sorts of VIRGINIA 115 'experiences,' and enjoy the most wonderful revelations. Visions of the supernatural are of nightly occurrence, and the most absurd circumstances are invested with some marvelous significance. I have heard that the great ordeal, in. tlieir estimation, a ' seeker' had to pass, was being held over the infernal flames "by a thread or a hair. If the thread does not break, the suspciiclee is ' in the Lord.' " It is proper, therefore, I think, to consider this circumstance, in estimating the strength of a Church, whose communicants einbraec Bach a number of' negroes. Of the Methodists, in Eastern Virginia, some six or seven thousand are colored." TMs condition of the slaves is not necessarily a, reproach, to those whose duty it more particularly is to instruct and preach the true Gospel to them. It is? in a great degree, a necessary result of the circumstances of their existence. The possession of arbitrary power has always, the world, over, tended irresistibly to destroy humane sensibility, magnanimity, and truth. !Loolc at the sovereigns of Europe in our day. There is not one, having sovereign power, that w'ovild not, over and .over again, for acts of which he is notoriously and undeniably guilty, under our laws, "be confined with the most depraved of criminals. It is, I have no doubt, utterly impossible, except as a camel shall enter the eye of a needle, for a man to have the will of others habitually under his control, without its impairing his sense of justice, his power of sympathy, his respect for manhood, and his worshipful love of'the Infinite Father. Hut it is much, more evident that involuntary subjection directly tends to turpitude and demoralization. True, it may tend also to the encouragement of some beautiful traits, to meekness, humility, and a kind of generosity and unselfishness. But where has it not ever been accompanied "by the loss of the nobler virtues of manhood, especially of the noblest, the most 116 OUR SLAVE S T A TKS. essential of all, that without which, all others avail nothing- for good: TKUTK. What is the matter with, the Irish? No one can rely on them--they cannot rely on one another. Though sensitive to duty, and in their way conscientious, they absolutely are not able to comprehend a rule, a law ; and that a man can be fixed by his promise they have never thought. A promise with them signifies merely an expressed intention. Irishmen that have long associated with us, we can depend on, for we have their confidence; but to a stranger still, their word is not worth a farthing. They are inveterate falsifiers, on the general prin ciple that no man can want information of them "but for his own good, and that good can ouly exist to their injury. "What is the cause of this ? their religion?--that to which it is attributed in their religion is the effect of it, more than the cause. It is the subjection of generations of this people to the will of landlords, corrupted to fiendish insensibility by the long continued posses sion of nearly arbitrary power. The capacity of mind for truth, and reliance has been all but lost, by generations of unjust sub jection. It is the same--only in some respects better, and some far worse--even already, with the African slave of the South. Every Virginian acknowledges it. Religion, to call that by the name which they do, has become subject to it. "They will lie in their very prayers to God." I find illustrations of the trouble that this vice occasions on every hand here. I just heard this, for instance, from a lady. A house-maid, who had the reputation of being especially devout, was suspected by her mistress of having stolen from her "bureau several trinkets. She was charged with the theft, and vociferously denied it. She was watched, arid the articles dis- VIRGINIA. 117 covered openly displayed on her person as she went to church. She still, on her return, denied having them--was searched, and they were found in her poekets. When reproached by her mistress, and lectured on the wickedness of lying and stealing, she replied with the confident air of knowing the ground she stood upon, "Law, mam, don't say I's wicked; ole Aunt Ann says it allers right for us poor colored people to 'popiate what ever of cle wite folk's blessins de Lord puts in our way." Old Aunt Ann was a sort of mother in the colored Israel of the town. It is told me as a singular fact, that everywhere on the planta tions, the agrarian notion has become a fixed point of the negro system of ethics : that the result of labor belongs of right to the laborer, and on this ground, even the religious feel justified In using " Massa's " property for their own temporal benefit. This they term " taking," and it is never admitted to be a reproach to a, man among them that he Is charged \vitli it, though " steal ing," or taking from, another than their1 master, and particularly from one another, Is so. They almost universally pilfer from the household stores when they have a safe opportunity. Thieving, by the way, Is not a national vice of the Irish, because the opportunities and temptations for it have been too small to have bred the habit. Jefferson says of the slaves : "Whether farther observation will or will not verify the conjec ture, that nature has been less bountiful to them in the endowments of the heat!, I believe that in. those of the heart she will have demo them justice. That disposition to'theft, with which they have been branded, must be ascribed to their situation, and not to any depra vity of the morul sense. The man in whoso favor no laws of pro perty exist, probably feels himself less bound to respect those made 118 OUR L A V 33 STATES. in favor of others. When arguing for ourselves, we lay it down as fundamental, that laws, to be just, must give a reciprocation of right; that without this, they ars mere -arbitrary rules, founded in force, and not in conscience, and it is a problem which I give to the master to solve, whether the religious precepts against the violation of pro perty were not framed for him as well as his slave ? and whether the slave may not as justifiably take a little from one who has taken all from Mm, as he may slay one who would slay him 1 That a change of the relations in which a man is placed should change his ideas of moral right and wrong, is neither new, nor peculiar to the color o the blacks. Homer tells us it was so, 2,000 years ago : ' Jove fixed it certain, that whatever day The folio-wing is a specimen of the most careful kind of preaching, ordinarily addressed by the white clergy to the black sheep of their flocks. It is by Bishop Meade, of the Church of England in Virginia., and is copied from a published volume of sermons, recommended by him to masters and mistresses of his diocese, for use in their households. " And think within yourselves what a terrible thing it would be, after all your labors and sufferings in this life, to be turned into hell in the next life, and, after wearing out your bodies in service here, to go into a far worse slavery when this is over, and your poor souls bo delivered over into the possession of the devil, to become his slaves forever in hell, without any hope of ever getting free from it ! If, therefore, you would be God's freemen in heaven, you must strive to bo good, and serve him here on earth. Your bodies, you know, are not your own ; they arc at the disposal of those you belong to ; but your precious souls arc still your own, which nothing can take from you, if it be not your own fault. Consider well, then, that, if you lose your souls by leading idle, wicked lives here, you have got nothing by it in this world, and you have lost your all in the nest. For,, your idleness and wickedness are generally found out, and your bodies suffer for it here ; and what is far worse, if you do not repent and amend, your unhappy souia will suffer for it hereafter. VIRGIN I A- 119 "Having thus shown you the chief duties you owe to your great Master in heaven, I now come to lay before you the duties you owo to your masters and mistresses hero upon earth. And for this you have one general rule, that you ought always to carry in your minds -, tind that is. to do all service for them as if you did it for God himself. "Poor creatures ! you little consider, when you are idle and neg lectful of your masters' business, when you steal, and waste, and hurt any of their substance, when you are saucy and impudent, when you arc telling them lies and deceiving them, or when you prove stubborn and sullen, and will not do the work you are set about without stripes and vexation,--you do not consider, 1 say, that what faults you are guilty of towards your masters and mistresses are faults clone against God himself, \vl\o hath, set your masters anti mistresses over you in his own stead, and expects that you would do for them just as you would do for him. And pray do not think that I want to deceive you when I tell yon that your masters and mistresses are God's overseers, and that, if you are faulty towards thorn, God himself will punish you severely for it in the nest world, unless you repent of it, and strive to make amends by your faith fulness and diligence for the time to come ; for God himself hath declared the same. "And in the first place, you are to be obedient and subject to your masters in all things. * * * And Christian ministers are commanded to ' exhort servants to he obedient unto their own masters, and to please them well in all things, not answering them again, or gainsaying.' * * * You .ire to be faithful and honest to your masters and mistresses, not purloining or wasting their goods or substance, but showing all good fidelity in all things. * * * Do not your masters, tinder God, provide for you? And how shall they be able to do this, to feed and to clothe yon, unless you take honest care of everything0 t,,h,,a.t b_e_l-o~nDgs.- J--~. t*-h1--em~ ?* RT>e--me~m --ib~eTMr t^h^a^t God requires this of you ; and if you are not afraid of suffering for it here, you cannot escape the vengeance of Almighty God, who will judge between you and your masters, and make you pay severely, in the next world, for all the injustice you do them here- And though you could manage so cunningly as to escape the eyes and hands of man, yet think what a dreadful thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God, who is able to cast both soul and body into hell." 120 OUR SLAVE STATES. That wicked historian, Volney, " shows up" tins sort o preaching, in the following suppositions debate, which, no doubt, has often been realized in the minds of the slaves: " Then the Spiritual Governors said : ' There is no other way. Aa the People is superstitious, it is necessary to frighten them by the name of God and Keligion.' So they said : "'Our dear brothers--our "children! God has appointed us to govern you.' " >S'. ' Show us your heavenly aiilhority.' " .M". ' You must have faith : lleason deceives.' " S. ' Do you rule us without Reason ?' " JM. ' God wishes Peace : Heligion prescribes Obedience.' " S. 'Peace supposes Justice: Obedience wishes to know theLaw.' " M. ' One is here below only to suffer.' " S. ' Show us an example !' " M. ' Do you wish to live without God and without Kings ?' " S. ' We would live withoiit Tyrants.' " ("My aunt, who, on account of my habitual carelessness--" not to suggest occasional approach to something like vulgarity"--of style, is good enough to assist me in reading proofs, thinks that I ought not to make use of a quotation from this heterodox historian, without a clearer indication of my own opinions. The Episcopalians, in the v/orcls of a certain tm-emincnt South ern, divine, "are a high-sailin' set," and easily offended, and The CJiurcJiman, she thinks, will be sure to suggest doubts of my rigid orthodoxy.]] A great many bad things have been furnished with props out of Scripture, by bad men, and a great many more by mistaken men, and the venerable Virginia prelate is not infallible. Exactly what such passages as lie quotes were intended to teach, it is not for me to define and limit; bat that they were meant to VIRGINIA. encourage any men. immortal and accountable, under all circum stances and forever, to. submit, in acquiescent stupefaction, to Slavery, I venture to discredit. Because it is contrary to nature and to common sense, and I tliink it takes a more liair-splitting1 mind, than negroes are generally endowed with, to think otherwise. Because it seems to me that, to do so, it is necessary that a man should acquire a more debased condition of soul than to be a schis matic, a fanatic, or a murderer. Suppose the bishop had been eonsigned to my cell at Gadsby's, and had-found it not only wanting in comfo-tj but possessed by vermin, and stenches, and clamp, and. Mr. Dexter liad been ready with 1 Tim. vi., 8, and ordered him, on the strength of it, to shut up and go to bed, when he mildly objected to the arrangements, would he have meekly .resigned himself to certain bronchitis, and a probability of acute laryngitis and speedy transfer to the eternal mansions ? I respect him too much to believe it. The relation between an impostor and one who carelessly and slothfully allows himself to be imposed upon, is the same as that between a thief and a receiver of stolen goods. Indolent acquiescence in that which is unjust and harmful to us, is as wrong as a revengeful or an unforgiving spirit; and if the Apostles had had to travel by our rail-roads, and rest at our hotels, and employ our hackneycoachmen, I believe they would have said so in so many words. The bishop seems to me to teach, by implication, the doctrine of the Divine Kight of Kings; for what else, except in name, is this divine right of oversight with which he invests the slave's master, and for disloyalty to which he threatens corresponding torment eternal? In doing1 so, is he not disloyal and rebellious to his own sovereign, "the Good People of Virginia," for their sovereignty is based in treason, and in denial of this divine right 122 ; it SLAVE STATES. of government of one man over another? If the bishop does not repent, where does lie expect to go to ? My aunt thinks that? "before I venture to object to the preach ing of a bishop, I should be ready to say what should be preached to slaves, while the necessity of keeping them in Slavery continues. I don't admit this; yet I may say, in general, that I should think that it would be encouragement to them, to so conduct and train themselves that this necessity should be removed as rapidly as possible; the supposition being always maintained, that this necessity rested on the extraordinary stupidity arid vicious proclivities of the slaves themselves, and would be happily removed "by their enlighten ment and growth in grace. "What says the learned and pious father Gregory, bishop., of the sixth century of Christianity? (Stmitn r_cbent^Jtor noster, totins cottMtor crsatirrcc, ab l)oc prc^itiattXG tjmnanam uoluint ccirnent assitmcre, nt aicitiitaiis sitce gratia, MritptQ" f\ft& teitebamttr mpiim winjcttlo, sETiriltttis, pristincc nos reslitucx'it libcrlttli sahtbriter tujitur si fjomines Xfnos ab iiiitio nnUiva librae proJalii, et \UQ gentium fngo substititit sei'Ditalis, in ea qua itati swnt, maniimitteniis benc&cie, libcrtale rfbbantur. Secret. Grat. P. 11. Cans. XII. Qucest. 2.* I had an idea that a good deal was done, with, some reference to the future freedom of the slaves ; "but I can't hear that such is the case, in the Episcopal or any other Chris- r Kedeemer and the Creator of eve , was willing to u body, in order that by the graci of bis cii vinity he might nd restore us to i, good and salutary thing when were created fro by the bencfactic aamimiBSioa, restored to that libei VIRGINIA. 123 tian organization. The Church of England form of worship is, in my opinion, the best calculated to encourage their eleva tion, of any used at the South; and the slaves who habitu ally attend and commune in the Episcopal church are, as a general rule, much more intelligent and elevated in their re ligious nature than any others. The ceremony and pomp, the frequent responses and chants, in. which, negroes are cspeetecl and encouraged to unite, in iinison with the whites, and the liturgical system of instruction in religious truth, are all favorable to the improvement in character of the negro, and admirably adapted to the idiosyncrasies of his nature. The Baptist and Methodist clergy, when addressing negro congregations, are said to spend most of their force iu argning against each other's doctrines, and the negroes are represented to have a great taste for theological controversy. As an illustration of the way in which a great many negroes understood a certain tenet of the Baptists, a gentleman narrated the following circumstance; A slave, who vras "a professor," plagued his master very much by his persistence iu certain immoral practices, and he requested a clergyman to converse with him and try to reform, him. The clergyman did so, and endeavored to bring the terrors of the law to bear upon his conscience, " Eook yeah, inassa," said the backslider, "don't de Scriptm- say, 'Dem who believes an is baptize shall be save 1?' " "Certainly," the clergyman an swered ; and went on to explain and expound the passage: but directly the slave interrupted hint again, " Jus you tell me now, massa, don't de good book say clese word ; * Dem as believes and is baptize, shall be save ;' want to know dat." "Yes; but--" 124 OUR SLAVE STATES. " Dat's all I want to know, sar; now wat's de use o' talkin to me 1? You aint a goin to make me bleve wat de blessed. Lord says, an't so, not ef you tries forever." The clergyman again attempted to explain, but the negro would not allow him, and as often as lie got back to the j udgmeiitday, or charging him with sin, and demanding reformation, he would interrupt him. in the same way. " De, Scriptur say, if a man believe and foe baptize he shall-- he shall^ be save. 2\~ow, massa, minister, I done believe arid I done baptize, an / shall lie save suali.----Dere's no nse talkin, sar." My remarks ha this letter, upon the religions and moral con dition of the slaves, are to be considered as my first impressions from what I see and hear. There appears to be a great diiferen.ce of opinion among those who have had "better opportunities of judging than. I, on the subject, and it is fair that I should say, that some assiire me they have no doubt the religious character of the slaves, who are members of churches, is as high as that of the white members, and that it is better than that of the lower class of whites. Opinions as to the general standard of morality among the slaves are strongly contradictory. My own impres sion has, therefore, been derived from facts that I hear, and from general observation of the manners and conversation of the slaves. It is true that a great deal of religious phraseology and much. Scripture language is used by them; but the very levity and inappropriateness with which it is applied, shows a want of a right appreciation of it. It is not at all improbable, however, that I shall find occasion to modify this early formed opinion, as I see and hear further. Of the frequently elevated _religious and moral as well as cultivated, and refined intellectual character of VIRGINIA* 125 the more favored household servants of many excellent families, there can "be no room for doubt. I have hardly less doubt, how ever, of the almost heathenish condition of the slaves on many of the large plantations. FI1EE NEGKOES IN" VIRGINIA. During forty-five years, according to Howison, the number of -white convicts in the Virginia penitentiaries was in the ratio of 1 to al)out 328 of the whole population; the number of colored convicts, 1 in 67. " The free negroes and mulattoes are, unquestionably," says this historian, " the most vicious and corrupting of the varied materials composing our social system." " The criminal law, as to free colored persons and slaves, differs widely from that applied to whites. The free negroes occupy an equivocal and most unhappy position between the whites and slaves, and the laws affecting them partake of this peculiarity. Capital punishment is inflicted on them for offenses more lightly punished in whites. They are entitled to trial by jury in cases of homicide and in all capital cases, "but, for all other crimes, they are tried by justices' courts of Oyer and Terminer, who must be unanimous in order to convict. They are subjected to restraint and surveillance in points beyond number." To show their poverty and the benevolence of providing for the race by slavery, I am told that in one county, a few years ago, an inventory and estimate of the value of their property was made "by order of the magistracy. With one exception, the highest value placed upon the property of an individual was 120 OUR SLAVE STATES. two dollars and a half, ($2 50). The person excepted owned one hundred and fifty acres of land, a cabin upon it, a mule and some implements. Pie had a family of nine. Of pro visions for its support, there were- in the house, at the time of tho visit of the appraisers, a peck and a hall" of Indian meal and part of a herring. The man was then absent to purchase some more meal, but had no money, and was to give his promise to pay in wood, which he was to cut from his farm. And this was in winter. That this poverty is not the result of want of facilities or security of accumnlating property, is proved by the exceptional instances of considerable wealth existing among them. An account of the death of a free colored man, who devised by will property to the amount of thirty thousand dollars, has lately been in the news papers. I am assured) by one who knew the man very well, of the general accuracy of the narration, though one somewhat important circumstance was omitted. It was stated that the man preferred that his children should continue hi the condition of slaves, and gave his property to a man who was to be their master. He gave as a reason for this, that he had personally examined the .condition of the free blacks in Philadelphia and Boston, as well as in Virginia, and he preferred that his children should remain slaves, knowing that their master would take better care of them than they were capable of exercising for themselves. This was substantially correct. He had been, however, for a, long time before his death, in a low state of health, and it is not known how sound, or uninfluenced by others, his mind might have been. The circumstance omitted was, that these were illegitimate children, by a slave woman, and that he simply left them in the condition in which they were born, in the VIRGINIA. 1.27 care of their legal owner, having himself no legal right to dispose of them in any other way. It is a general custom of "white peopie here to leave their illegitimate children, by slaves (and they are i>er?/ common), in slavery. The- man was himself a mulatto. A man of wealth and station, who enjoys the friendship of the best and most respected people, lately sold Ms own half-brother, an intelligent, and of course " valuable," young man, to the traders, to be sent South, because he had attempted to rnn away to the Free States. So I am informed by his neighbor and friend. At the present rate of wages, any free colored man might accumulate property more rapidly in Virginia than almost any man, depending solely on bis labor, can at the ISTorth. In the tobacco-factories in Richmond and Petersburg, slaves are, at this time, in great demand, and are paid one hun dred and fifty to two hundred dollars, and all expenses, for a year. These slaves are expected to work only to a certain extent for their employers; it having been found that they could not be " driven " to do a fair day's work so easily as they coiild be stimulated to it by the offer of a bonus for all they would manufacture above a certain number of pounds. This quantity is so easily exceeded, that the slaves earn for themselves from five to twenty dollars a month. Freemen are paid for all they do, at rates wyhicli make their labor equally profitable, and can earn, if they give but moderate attention and diligence to the labor, very large sums. One man's wages amounted last year, as I am informed by his employer, to over nine hundred dollars; but he is supposed to have laid tip none of it. K~carly all the negroes, slave and free, it is said, spend their money as fast as IBS OUR SLAVE STATES. they receive it. And nearly all of it goes in a manner to do them injury. Formerly, it is said, tlie slaves were accustomed to amuse themselves, in the evening and on holidays, a great deal in dancing, and they took great enjoyment in this exercise. It was at length, however, preached against, and the "professors" so generally induced to \ISQ their influence against it, as an immoral practice, that it lias greatly gone "out of fashion," and, in place of it, the young ones have got into the habit of gambling, and worse occupations, for the pastime of then- holi days and leisure hours. I have not seen any dancing during these holidays, nor any recreation engaged in by the blacks, that is not essentially gross, dissipating', or wasteful, unless I except the firing of crackers. Improvidence is generally considered here a natnral trait of African character; and by none is it more so than by the negroes themselves. I think it is a mistake. Negroes, as far as I have observed at the Isorth, although suffering1 from the contamination of habits acquired by themselves or their fathers in Slavery, are more provident than whites of equal educational advantages. Much .more so than ilie newly-arrived Irish, though the Irish, soon after their immigration, are usually infected with the desire of accumulating wealth and acquiring permanent means of comfort. This opinion is confirmed by the experience of our City Missionaries--one of whom has informed me that where the very pooi'est classes of ITew York reside, black and white in the same house, the rooms occupied by the blacks are generally much less bare of furniture and the means of subsistence than those of the whites. I observed that the negroes themselves follow the notion of VIRGINIA. 129 the whites here, and look upon, the people of their race as naturally unfitted to look out for themselves far ahead. Accus tomed, like children, to have all their necessary wants provided for, their whole energies and powers of mind arc habitually given to obtaining the means of temporary ease and enjoyment. Their masters and the poor or " mean" whites acquire some what of the same habits from early association- with them, calculate on it in them--do not wish to cure it--and by constant practices encourage it. For the means of enjoying themselves the negroes depend much on presents. Their good-natured mas ters (and their masters are generally very good-natured, though capricious) like to gratify them, and are ashamed to disappoint them--to he thought mean. So it follows that, with the free ne groes, habit is upon them; the hahits of their associates, slaves make the custom of society--that strongest of agents upon weak minds. The whites think improvidence a natural defect of character with them, expect it of them ; as they grow old, or, as they lose easy means of gaining a livelihood, charitably furnish it to them; expect them to pilfer; do not look upon it as a crime, or at least consider them but slightly to blame; and so every influence and association is unfavorable to providence, forethought, economy. With sucli influences upon them, with such a character, with such education, with such associations, it is not surprising that Southerners say that the condition of the slave who is subject to some wholesome restraint, and notwithstanding his improvidence is systematically provided for, is preferable to that of the free black. The free black does not, in general, feel himself superior to the slave; and the slaves of the wealthy and aristocratic families consider themselves in a much better and more honorable position 130 OUR SLAVE STATES. than the free "blacks. Their view of the matter is said to be expressed thus; ------" dirty free niggers !----got nobody to take, care of 'em." It is for this reason that slaves of gentlemen, of high charac ter, who are treated with judicious indulgence, and who can. rely with confidence on the permanence of their position, know ing that they will be kindly cared for as they grow old, and feeling- their own incapacity to take care of themselves, do often voluntarily remain in slavery when freedom is offered them, whether it "be at the South, or North, or in Africa. A great many slaves that have been freed and sent to the North, after remaining there for a time, are said to have returned--longing, like the faithless Israelites, for the flesh pots of Slavery--of their own accord, to Virginia, and their report of the manner in which negroes are treated there, the difficulty of earning enough to provide themselves with the luxuries to which they have been accustomed, the unkindness of the white people to them, and the want of that thoughtless liberality in payments to them which they expect here from their superiors, has not been such as to lead others to pine for the life of an outcast at the North. A number of Mr. Randolph's slaves, it has been several tunes mentioned to me, have thus returned. It is well known that Mr. Randolph took a humane and democratic view of Slavery; and his neglect to educate them for the liberty which, after his death, he "bequeathed to them, may have added much to that terrible remorse which darkened his death-bed. It is certainly true that the negroes, either slave or free, are not generally disposed to go to Liberia. It is a distant country, of which they can have but very little reliable information, and they do not like the idea, any more than other people, of emigrat- VIRGINIA. 131 ing from their native country. But I really think that the best reason for their not being more anxious to go there is, that they are sincerely attached, m a certain "way, to the white race. At all events, they clo not incline to live in communities entirely separate from the 'whites, and do not long for entire independ ence from them. They have been so long- accustomed to trust ing the government of all weighty matters to the whites, that they would not feel at ease where they did not have them to -" take care of 'em." They do not feel inclined to take great responsibilities on themselves, and have no confidence in the talent of their race for self-government. A gentleman told me that he owned a very intelligent negro, who had acquired some property, and that he had more than once offered him his freedom, hut he would always reply that he did not feel able to fall entirely upon his own resources, and pre ferred to have a master. He once offered him his freedom to go to Liberia, and urged him to go there. His reply was to the effect that he would have no objections if the govern ment was in the hands of white folks, hut that he had no con fidence in the ability of black people to undertake the control of public affairs. I do not wish to be understood as intimating that the slaves generally would not like to be freed and sent to the North, or that they are ever really contented or satisfied with slavery ; only that having been deprived of the use of their limbs from infancy, as it were, they may not wish now suddenly to be set upon their feet, and left to shift for themselves. They may prefer to secure at least plain, food and clothing, and comfortable lodging, at their owner's expense, while they will return as little for it as they can, and have only the luxuries of life to work for on their own 132 O U K, SLAVE STATES. account. j_t is no I easy to deprive them of the means of secur ing a share of these. These luxuries, to he sure, may he of very degrading charac ter, and such as, according to our ideas, they would be better . without; but their tastes and habits arc formed to enjoy them, and they are not likely to be content without. But., to live cither on their own means, or the charitable assist ance of others, at the North, they must dispense with many of these things. It is as much as most of them.--more than some of them, with us--can do, by their labor, to obtain the means of subsist ence, such as they have been used to being provided with, with out a thought of their own, at the South. And if they are known to indulge in practices that are habitual with the race, they will not only lose the charity, hut even the custom, of most of their philanthropic friends ; and then they must turn to pilfering again, or meet that most pitiful of all extremities--poverty from want of work. Again : suppose them to wish to indulge in their old habits of sensual pleasure, they can only do so by forsaking the better class of even their own color, or by drawing them clown v to their own level. In this way, Slavery, even now, day by clay, is greatly responsible for the degraded and immoral condition of the free blacks of our cities, and especially of Philadelphia. It is, perhaps, necessary that I should explain that licentiousness and almost indiscriminate sexual connection among the young is very general, and is a necessity of the system of Slavery. A Northern family that employs slave-domestics, and insists upon a life of physical chastity in its female servants, is always greatly detested ; and they frequently come to their owners and beg to be taken away, or not hired again, though acknowledging themselves to be kindly treated in. all other respects. A VI KG- INI A. 133 slave-owner told me this of Ms own girls Hired to Northern people. That the character and condition of some is improved "by coming to the North, it is impossible to deny. From a miser able, half barbarous, half brutal state they have been brought in contact with the highest civilization. [From slaves they have, sometimes, come to be men of intelligence, cultivation, and refinement. There are no white men in the United States that display every attribute of a strong- and good soul betterthan some of the freed slaves. What would Frederick Douglass have been had he failed to escape from, that service which Bishop Meade dares to say is the service of God; had his spirit been once broken by that man wlio, Bishop Meade would have taught him, was God's chosen overseer of his body? "What has he become since he dared commit the sacrilege of coming out of bondage? All the statesmanship and kind mastership of the South lias done less, in fifty years, to elevate and dignify the African race, than he in ten. PETERSBURG- TO KOEFOI-K. In order to be in time for the train of cars in which I was to leave Petersburg for Norfolk, I was called up at an "unusual hour iu the morning and provided with a very poor breakfast, on the ground that there had not "been time to prepare a decent one, (though I was charged full time on the bill), advised by the landlord to hurry when I seated myself at the table, and two minutes afterwards informed that, if I remained longer, I should be too late. Thanks to these kind precautions, I reached the station twenty 134 OUR SLAVE STATES. minutes before the train left, and was afterwards carried with about fifty other people at the rate of ten miles an hour to City-point, where all were discharged under a dirty shed, from which a wharf projected into James river. The train was advertised to connect here with a steamboat for Norfolk. Finding no steamboat at the wharf, I feared, at first, that the delay in leaving Petersburg and the slow speed upon tlie road had detained us so long that the boat had departed without us. But observing no disappointment or concern expressed by the other passengers, I concluded the boat was to call for us, and had yet to arrive. An hour passed, during- which I tried to keep warm by "walking,, up and down the wharf; rain then commenced falling, and I returned to the crowded shed and asked a young man., who ivas engaged in cutting the letters Q-. W. B., with a dirkknife, upon the head of a. tobacco-cask, what was supposed to have detained the steamboat. "Detained her 1 there aint no detention to her as I know on; 'taint hardly time for her to be along yet." Another half hour, in fact, passed, before the steamboat arrived, nor was any impatience manifested by the passengers. All seemed to take this hurrying and waiting process as the regular thing-. The women sat sullenly upon trunks and pack ing-cases, and watched their baggage and restrained their children ; the men chewed tobacco and read newspapers, lounged first on one side and then on the other, some smoked, some walked away to a distant tavern, some reclined on the heaps of freight and "went to sleep, and a few conversed quietly and intermittingly with one another. VIRGINIA. 135 THE- JAMES EIVER. The stores of the James river are low and level--tlie sceneryuninteresting ; but frequent planters' mansions, often of great, size and of some elegance, stand upon tlie "bank, and sometimes these have very pretty and well-kept grounds about them--finer than any other I have seen at the South--and the plantations surrounding them are cultivated with neatness and skill. Many men distinguished in law and politics here have their homes. I was pleased to see the appearance of enthusiasm, with which some passengers, who were landed from our boat at one of these places, were received "by two or three well-dressed negro servants, who had come from the house to the wharf to meet them. Black and white met with kisses, and the effort of a long-haired sophomore to maintain his supercilious dignity, was quite ineffec tual to kill the kindness of a fat mulatto woman, who joyfully and pathetically shouted, as she caught him off the gang-plank, " Oh Massa G-eorge, is you come back !" Field negroes, standing by, looked on with their usual besotted expression, and neither offered nor received greetings. NORFOLK. I arrived in Norfolk on the eve of a terrific gale, during which vessels at anchor in the Roads went down, and the city and country were much excited by various disasters, both on shore and at sea. JAX. 10th. Norfolk is a dirty, low, ill-arranged town, nearly divided by a morass. It has a single creditable public building, a number of fine private residences, and the polite society is reputed to be agreeable, refined, and cultivated, receiving a character from the families of the resident naval officers. It has 13G O U K S TJ A V B STATES. all the immoral and disagreeable -characteristics of a large seaport, with, very few of the advantages that we should expect to find as relief to them. No lycemn or public libraries, 110 public gardens, no galleries of art, and though, there are two "BETHELS," no "home" for its seamen; no public resorts of liealthful and refining amusement, no place better than a filthy, tobacco -impregnated bar-room or a licentious dance-cellar; so far as I have been able to learn, for the stranger of high, or low degree to pass the hours unoccupied by business. Lieut. Maury has lately very well shown, what advantages were originally possessed for profitable commerce at this point, in a report, the intention of which, is to advocate the establishment of a line of steamers hence to Para, the port of the mouth, of the Amazon. I have the "best wishes for the success of the project in its important features, and the highest respect for the judgment of Lieut. Maury, "but it seems to me pertinent to inquire why are the British. Government steamers not sent exclusively to Halifax, the nearest port to England, instead of to the more distant and foreign, port of New "Fork ? If a, Govern ment line of steamers sliould be established between Para and Norfolk, and should be fonnd in the least degree commercially profitable, how long would it be before another line would be established between New York and Para, by private enterprise, and then how much business would be left for the Government steamers while they continued to end their voyage at Norfolk? So, too, with regard to a line from Antwerp to Norfolk, (a proposition to grant State aid for establishing which, was the chief topic of public discussion in. Virginia, at the time of my visit). Lieut. Maury says, however: "Norfolk is in a position to have commanded the business of the VIRGINIA. 137 Atlantic sea-board : it is midway the coast. It has a back country of great facility and resources ; and, as to approaches to the ocean, there is no harbor from the St. Johns to the Kio Grando that has the same facilities of ingress and egress at all times and In all weathers. * * The back country of Norfolk is all that which is drained by the Chesapeake Bay--embracing a line drawn along the ridge between the Delaware and the Chesapeake, thence northerly, including all of Pennsylvania that is in the valley of the Susqueliaiizm, all of Maryland this side of the mountains, the valleys of the Potomao, Kappahanuocfc, York, and James rivers, with the Valley of the Iloanoke, and a great part of the State of North Carolina, 'whoso only outlet to the sea is by the way of Norfolk." THE NEGLECTED OPPORTUNITIES OF NORFOLK. Tliis is a favorite theme with. Lieut. Maury, who is a Vir ginian. In a letter to the National Intelligencer, Oct. 3.1, 1854, after describing similar advantages which, the town possesses to those enumerated, above, he continues : Its climate is delightful. It is of exactly that happy tempera ture where the frosts of the North bite not, and the pestilence of the South walks not. Its harbor is commodious and safe as safe can be. It is never blocked up by ice. It has the double advantage of an inner and an outer harbor. The inner harbor i's as smooth as any mill-pond. In it vessels lie with perfect security, where every ima ginable facility is offered for loading and unloading." " * * * * " The back country, which without portage is naturally tributary to Norfolk, not only surpasses that which is tributary to New York in mildness of climate, in fertility of soil, and variety of production, but in geographical extent by many square miles. The proportion being as three to one in favor of the Virginia port." * * * " The natural advantages, then, in relation to the sea or the back country, are superior, beyond comparison, to those of New York." There is little, if any exaggeration in tins estimate ; yet, if a deadly, enervating" pestilence had always raged, here, this Nor~ folk could, not be a more miserable, sorry little seaport town 138 OUR SLAVE STATES. than it is.* It was not possible to prevent the existence of some agency liere for the transhipment of goods, and for supply ing the needs of vessels, compelled by exterior circumstances to take refuge in the harbor. Beyond this bare supply of a ne cessitous demand, and what results from the adjoining naval rendezvous of the nation, there is nothing-. Singularly simple, cliild-like ideas about commercial success, you find among the Virginians--even among the merchants themselves. The agency by -which commodities are transferred from the producer to the consumer, they seem to look upon as a kind of swindling operation; they do not see that the merchant acts a useful pai't in the community, or, that his labor can be other than selfish imtl malevolent. They speak angrily of New York, as if it fattened on the country without doing the country any g-ood in return. They have no idea that it is their business that the New Yorkers are doing, and that whatever tends to facilitate it, and make it simple and secure, is art * This was written and printed long before the late sad visit of yellow fever that it seemed to mo incredible that its people could live, in health. If the eou- clreadful visitor certainly did not come uninvited. Since writing this note, my attention has been called to an article in the Bos- in Hoi-folk, but his plac< is supplied by < .uhealtky subsis' s brought VIR&IWIA. 139 increase of their wealth "by diminishing1 the costs and lessening the losses upon it. They gravely demand why the government mail steamers should he sent to New York, when New York has so much business already, and why the nation should build costly custom-houses and post-offices, and mintsj and sea defenses, and collect stores and equipments there, and not at Norfolk, and Petersburg, and Eichmond, and Danville, and Lynchburg, and Smith-town, and Jones's Cross-Roads ? Ifc seems never to have occurred to them that it is becaiise the country needs them there, because the skill, enterprise and energy of New York merchants, the confidence of capitalists in New York merchants, the various facilities for trade offered by New York merchants, enable them to do the business of the country cheaper and better than It can be done anywhere else, and that thus they can command commerce, and need not petition their Legislature, or appeal to mean sectional prejudices to obtain it, but all imagine It is by some shrewd Yankee trickery it is done. By the bones of their noble fathers they will set their faces against it--and their faces are not of dough--so they bully their local merchants into buying In dearer markets, and make the country tote its gold on to Philadelphia to be coined ; and their conven tions resolve that the world shall come to Norfolk, or Richmond, or Smithtown, and that no more cotton shall be sent to England until England will pay a price for it that shall let negroes be worth a thousand' dollars a head? &c., &c., &c. Then, if it be asked why Norfolk, with its immense natural advantages for commerce, has not been able to do their "business for them as well as New York; or why Richmond, with its great natural superiority for manufacturing, has not prospered like 140 OUR SLAVE STATES. Glasgow, or Petersburg like Lowell--"why Virginia is not like Pennsylvania, or Kentucky like OMo ?--they will perhaps answer that it, is owing- to the peculiar tastes they have inherited ; " settled mainly (as TV as Virginia) by the sons of country gentlemen, who brought the love of country life with them across the Atlantic, and infused it into the mass of the population, they have ever preferred that life, and the title of country gentleman, implying the possession of landed estates, has always been esteemed more honorable than any other."*" It is simply a matter of taste--an answer which reminds us of jSsop's fox. Ask any honest stranger who has "been brought into intimate intercourse for a short time with the people, why it is that here lias been stagnation, and therv constant, healthy progress, and he will answer that these people are less enterprising, energetic and sensible in the conduct of their affairs--that they live less in harmony with the laws that govern the accumulation of wealth than those. Ask him how this difference of character should have arisen, and he will tell you it is not from the blood, but from the education they have received; from the institutions and circum stances they have inherited. It is the old, fettered, barbarian labor-system, in connection with which they have been brought lip, against which all their enterprise must struggle, and with the chains of which all their ambition must be bound. This conviction I find to be universal in the minds of strangers, and it is forced upon one more strongly than it is possible to make yon comprehend by a mere statement of isolated facts. You could as wyell convey an idea of the effect of mist on a * Dr. Little's History of IlicLmond. V I It. G- 1. N J. A . 141 landscape, "by enumerating tlie number of particles of vapor that obscure it. Give Virginia Hood fair play, remove it, from the atmosphere of slavery, and it shows no lack of energy and good sense. It is strange the Virginians dare not look this in the face. Strange how they bluster in their legislative debates, in their newspapers, and in their "bar-rooms, about the "Yankees," and the "Yorkers," declaring that they are -'swindled out of their legitimate trade," "when the simple truth is, that the Northern, merchants do that for them, that they are unable to do for themselves. As well might the Chinese be angry with us for sending our clipper ships for their tea, because it is a business that would be more (( legitimately" (however less profitably) carried on in "junks." " LEGITIMATE" TIRQIXJA, SEAMANSHIP. There's a yarn I have heard from the Staaten Island coasters, who run down to the eapes of Virginia for oysters, which illus trates admirably how Virginia commerce would be " legitimately" carried on, that is, in the manner naturally resulting from her system. Among the largest and luckiest of the Virginia merchantmarine, is the fine, fast-sailing, light-draft, putty-bottomed, packet-sloop, the Abstraction. The '' old Ab" was formerly owned and commanded by Captain Jerry S., and was manned by one black boy, sixty years old, named Mopus, and commonly called. Uncle Mopus. Mopas was a slave, and Captain Jerry had bought him. with the sloop. Mopus was a proper slave, patient, meek, stupid, and stubborn,--a talking donkey. He never had been taught 142 OTJR SLAVE STATES. to read or to comprehend figures. lie could not understand the dial, and the binnacle-compass was a sort of fetish to him; the mystery of which he was too humble to desire to penetrate. He piously left these great things in the hands of his owner, and resigned himself to the will of that Provi dence -which had given Mm a master to take care of him, who was responsible for his safety and profits, as well as the sloop's. This resignation nnd faith of the good Mopus, however, often gave Captain Jerry a deal of trouble, for it obliged him to be nearly always on deck and wide awake, and he sometimes thought lie might better sell Mopus, and buy a nigger that -was not BO good, (Captain Jerry, as I heard it, used to put in a word between so and good, and bear clown on it.) but the danger that such a one would prove entirely reckless of all moral suggestions, as smart niggers are very apt to, and go and steal himself, prevented his doing so, and he tried to make the best of Mopus' muscles, and to supply the necessary brain-power for the sloop from Ms own private skull. One night, Captain Jerry having been up all the previous night, and having just worked the sloop out of Hampton roads, against wind and tide, and being quite overcome with fatigue, thought he might venture to trust Mopus with the helm for a few hours, the sloop's course being now due north, up Chesapeake bay, wind light and quartering, a clear sky, aud nothing in the way for fifty miles. Mopus knew the ibforth Star very well, as niggers generally do, and telling him to keep the bow-sprit pointing straight at it, and not to disturb him until he saw land to starboard, Captain Jerry put out the binnacle-light to save oil, and turned-in. VIRGINIA. 143 Captain Jerry had the habit, which small-craft men are apt to get, of consulting aloud with himself. No sooner had he closed the companion scuttle than Mopus, with head to the stove pipe, heard--" Moon fulled Thursday--slack -water at six--North Star--that'll do till daylight sartain--clue North-- Tangier island--not afore meridian--can't go wrong till arter daylight, no how--good snooze this time--go in--offbools." Mope was a capital helmsman ; and for two hours, while the breeze held, he kept on a bee-line to the northward. Then it fell calm.; and then there came little catspaws from northwest, and Mope, after giving a pull of the main-sheet, left .the helm a minute to flatten the jib. While he was forward, a flaw from the northeast took him all aback. Belaying jib-sheet, he camo aft, rund put helm up to wear round. -Just as he jibed, came another flaw from the southeast, and a pretty smart one. Mope met it, trimmed close, and seeing it was going to be steady, left the helm again, and shoved down the centre board. Then he went to the hatchway and got his coat, after which he took a pull at the scuttle-butt, and struck a light for a smoke. All this time old Abby, with her head southeast, was shaking like a nail-mill. Mope finally hauled the jib up to port, till the mainsail filled, then took the helm again, and kept her rap full heading south, but running off to the westward, now and then, in search for the North Star, which, as he could not see it any where else, he thought for a long time must have got behind the mainsail. He had smoked out two pipes "before he found it, and then it was right over tlie stern^ which at first struck him as a singular circumstance. There it was, "pointers and all;" he could not bo mistaken. But how did It get there ? 14:4 OUR SLAVE STATES Mope pondered over it for two pipes more, all tlie while giving her a good fiill and nothing off. He was at first inclined to treat it as a mystery; but when, about two o'clock, the moon rose, he grew bold, knotted his eyebrows, clenched his teeth, took off his tarpaulin, and struck his reflective organs with his clenched fist. At length the problem was solved, and his lips trembled and gathered inward and puckered back with that pleasure which niggers, in common with human "beings, enjoy, when they are conscious of having, acquitted themselves well of a- trying and honorable responsibility. He immediately hauled the boom down close to the taffrail; he went forward, and "belayed tho jib to windward, lighted his pipe again, and kept a good look out till, as day broke, he made land to starboard, just as he . expected ;--land to starboard and--why didn't he see it be fore "?--a light right ahead, and not very far ahead either. "All right," thought Mopus, " daylight, humph! let an old nigger alone to find the way to the North;" and he let the jib draw away, went aft, took the helm and called tho skipper. The skipper turned out : "Hallo, uncle, close hauled 1 Wind's come out o' norrard, has it 1 Why, Mopus ! why ! what the devil--what light's that"? Why, Mope! why you------Where you "been taking the sloop to now, you black rascal ! here's the North Star over the starn !" "Oh yes, massa, past cle Norf Star an hour ago; all right, sar, here's de land right off here to Inward. Made a fine run, sar. Oh! I knows how to fotch 'em along, I does myself, ha! ha! ha! Takes old Mope arter all, don't it? ha! ha! ha!" " Ye-es (through his teeth) mighty fine run! Old Point, by the blood of Pocahontas! just where I'd got her last night at VIKGINIA. 145 sunset!--you griunin' catamount! Takes old Mope! You bloody old cuss! I'll sell you for a chaw of tobacco to the first white man that '11 take you oft' my hands." Incidents, trifling in themselves, constantly betray to a stran ger the bad economy of using' enslaved servants. The catastro phe of one such occurred since I began, to write this letter. I ordered a fire to be made in my room, as I was going out this morning. On my return, I found a grand fire--the room door having been, closed and locked upon it, and, by the way, I had to obtain assistance to open it, the lock being " out of order." Just now, while I was writing, down tumbled upon the floor, and rolled away close to the valance of the bed, half a, hod-full of ignited coal, which had been so piled up on the diminutive grate, andleft without a fender or any guard, that this result was almost inevitable. If I had not returned at the time I did, the house would have been fired, and probably an incendiary charged with it, while some Northern Insurance Company made good the loss to the owner. And such carelessness of servants you have mo mentarily to notice. But the constantly-occurring delays, and the waste of time and labor that you encounter everywhere, are most annoying and provoking to a stranger. The utter want of system and order, almost essential, as it would appear, where slaves are your instruments, is amazing--and when you are not in haste, often amusing. At a hotel, for instance, you go to your room and find no conveniences for washing; ring and ring again, and hear the office-keeper ring again and. again. At length two servants ap pear together at your door, get orders, and go away. A quarter of an hour afterwards, perhaps, one returns with a pitcher of water, but no towels ; and so on. Yet as the servants arc attentive and 146 OITRSLA.VE STATES. anxious to please (expecting to be "remembered" when yon leave), it only results from the want of system and. order. Until the negro is big enough for his labor to be palpably profitable to Ms master, he has no training to application or method, but only to idleness and carelessness. Before the chil dren arrive at a working age, tliey hardly come under the notice of their owner. An inventory of them is taken on the plantation at Christmas ; and a planter told me tliat lie had sometimes had them brought in at twelve or thirteen years old, that had escaped the vigilance of the overseer up to that age. The only whipping of slaves that I have seen in A7irginia, has been of these wild, lazy children, as they are being broks in to work. It is at this moment going on in the yard beneath my window. They cannot be depended upon a minute out of sight. You will see how difficult it would be, if it were attempted, to eradicate the indolent, careless, incogitant habits so formed in youth. But it is not systematically attempted, and the in fluences that continue to act upon a slave in the same direction, cultivating every quality at variance with industry, precision, forethotight, and providence, are innumerable. It is impossible that the habits of the whole community should not be influenced, by, and be made to accommodate to these habits of its laborers. It irresistibly affects the whole industrial character of the people. You may see it in the habits and man ners of the free white mechanics and trades-people. All of these must have dealings or be in competition with slaves, and so have their standard of excellence made low, and become accustomed to, nntil they are content with slight, false, unsound workman ship. You notice in all classes, vagueness in ideas of cost and. VIRGINIA. 147 value, and injudicious and unnecessary expenditure of labor "by a thoughtless manner of setting about work.* I had an umbrella broken. I noticed it as I was going out from my hotel during a shower, and stepped into an adjoining locksmith's to have it repaired. He asked where he should send it when lie had done it. " I intended to wait for it," I answered; "how long is it going to take you, and how much shall you charge ?" "I can't do it in less than half an hour, sir, and it will be worth a quarter." " I shouldn't think it need take you so long, it is merely a rivet to be tightened." " I shall have to take it all to pieces, and it will take me all of half an hour." " I don't think you need take it to pieces." "Yes, I shall--there's no othei' way to do it." "Then, as I can't well wait so long, I will not trouble you with it;" and I went into the hotel, and with the fire-poker did the job myself, in less than a minute, as well as he could have done it in a week, and went on my way, saving half an hour and quarter of a dollar, like a " Yankee." Virginians laugh at us for sucli things : but it is because they are indifferent to these fractions, or, as they say, above regard ing them, that they cannot do their own business with the rest of the world, and all their commerce, as they are constantly and most absurdly complaining, only goes to enrich Northern men. A man forced to labor under their system is morally driven to indolence, carelessness, indifference to the results of 148 OTJR SLAVE STATES. skill, heedlessness, inconstancy of purpose, improvidence, and extravagance. Precisely the opposite qualities are those which > are encouraged, and inevitably developed in. a man who has to make liis living', and earn all his comfort by his voluntarilydirected labor. These opposite qualities are those which are essentially necessary to the success of an adventurer in com merce. The commercial success of the free states is the offspring of their voluntary labor system. The inability of the Virginians to engage in commerce is the result of their system of involuntary servitude. The condition of the laborers pre determines the condition of all the people. GOSPOKT. Several ships were here, under orders, waiting for crews; with the rest, the Powhattan steam-frigate, among 'whose officers I found some acquaintances. What sort of hands they liad to take, and how difficult they found the duty of efficiently commanding them, may be imagined from the dis graceful fact, that, at that time, but twelve dollars a month was allowed "by Government to be paid for the best men for the national service, while merchantmen were paying twenty-five dollars for common able seamen; and yet, be cause, when under these circumstances, the crews obtained were not smart, clean, sober, docile, and contented, I heard officers ascribe their difficulties to the disuse of the cat and the old terrifying system of discipline. The United States iSFavy should be a school of the utmost excellence of seamanship, not a refuge for irreclaimable sots, loafers, and ruffians, who cannot, or dare not, take employ ment elsewhere at the market rate of ivag'es. VIRGINIA. 14:9 I, as a one-twenty-three-miilionth proprietor of it, wonder if it would riot be better policy to go into exactly the oppo site extreme, and, by paying- the best wages, get the best men--the highest priced labor in open market is usually believed to be the cheapest. And I wonder if it would not be possible to obtain men for the labor of ships, as well as for any other labor, who would always perform the services required of them heartily, 11 promptly and fully, as an honest return for their wages and rations; who would obey orders, not like whipped curs and cowed slaves, but as free men, and brave men, and wise men, with a republican respect for right laws, and a sensible un derstanding of the fit division of responsibility between them and their officers. I fear not, unless some thorough, com prehensive, and generously-directed educational department shall be adopted as a permanent, and indivisible part of our naval system. THE DISMAL SWAMP. The " Great Dismal Swamp," together with the smaller "Dismals" (for so the term is used here), of the same cha racter, along the iSTorth Carolina Coast, have hitherto been of considerable commercial importance as furnishing a large amount of lumber, and especially of shingles for our North ern use as well as for exportation. The district from which this commerce proceeds is all a vast quagmire, the soil "being entirely composed of decayed vegetable fibre, saturated and surcharged with water ; yielding or quaking on the surface to the tread of a man, and a large part of it, during most 6f the year, half inundated with standing pools. It is divided 150 OUR SLAVE STATES. "by creeks and water-veins, and in the centre is a pond six miles long and three broad, the shores of which, strange to say, are at a higher elevation above the sea, than any other part of the swamp, and yet are of the same iniry consistency. .^ The Great Dismal is about thirty miles long and ten /'miles wide on an average ; its area about 200,000 acres. And the little Dismal, Aligator, Catfish, Green, and otlacv smaller swamps, on the shores of Albemarle and Pamlico, con tain over 2,000,000 acres. A considerable part of this is the property of the State of North. Carolina, and the proceeds of sales from it form the chief income of the department of education of that Commonwealth. An excellent canal, sis feet in. depth, passes for more than twenty miles through the swamp, giving1 passage not only to the lumber collected from it, but to a large fleet of coasting vessels engaged in the trade of the Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds, and making a safe outlet towards New York for all the corn, cotton, tar, turpentine, etc., produced in the greater part of the eastern section of Korth Carolina, which is thus brought to market without encountering the extremely ha zardous passage outside, from Cape Hatteras to Cape Henry. This canal is fed by the water of tlie pond in the centre of the swamp, its summit-level being many feet below it.* nain products g, cubic feet 24,000,000 .. . 6,000,000 . . 125,000 40,000 4,500 50,000 30,000 VIRGINIA. 153 Much of the larger part of tho ' Great Dismal" was origi nally covered by a lieavy forest growth. All the trees indi genous to the neighboring country I found stilt extensively growing, and of full size within its borders. But tho main production., and that which lias been of tlie greatest value, has "been of cypress and juniper; (trio latter commonly known as white cedar, at tho North). From these two, im mense quantities of shingles have been made. The cypress also affords ship-timber, now in great demand, and a great many rough poles of the juniper, under the name of " ced.arrails," are sent to New York and other ports, as fencing material, (generally selling at seven cents a rail,) for the farms of districts that have been deprived of their own na tural wood "by tlie extension of tillage required, by tlio -wants of neighboring towns or manufactories. The swamp belongs to a great many proprietors. . Most of them own only a few acres, but some possess large tracts and use a lieavy capital in the business. One, whose ac quaintance I made, employed more than a hundred lidtods in getting out shingles alone. Tlie value of the swamp land varies with the wood upon it. and the facility with tyhich it can be got off, from 12-jj cents to $30 an acre. It is made passable in any desired direction in which trees grow, by roo 5,000 1,300 9,000,000 30,000 25,000 159 OUR SLAVE STATES. laying logs, cut in lengths of eight or ten feet, parallel and against each other on the surface of the soil, or " sponge," as it is called. Mules and oxen are used to some extent upon these roads, but transportation is mainly "by hand to the creeks, or to ditches communicating with them or the canal. Except by those log-roads, the swamp is scarcely passable in many parts, owing not only to the softness of the sponge, but to the obstruction caused by innumerable shrubs, vines, creepers and briars, which often take entire possession of the surface, forming a dense brake or jungle. This, how ever, is sometimes removed by fires, which of late years have "been frequent and very destructive to the standingtimber. The most common shrubs- are. various smooth-leafed evergreens, and their dense, bright, glossy foliage, was exceed ingly "beautiful in the wintry season of my visit. There is a good deal of game in. the swamp--bears and wild cats are sometimes shot, raccoons and opossums are plentiful, and deer ara found in the drier parts and on the outskirts. The fishing, in the interior waters, is also said to be excellent. Nearly all the valuable trees have now been cut oil' from the swamp. The whole ground has been frequently gone over, the best timber selected and removed at each time, leaving the remainder standing thinly, so that the wind has more effect upon it; and much of it, from the yielding of the soft soil, is uprooted or broken off. The fires have also greatly injured it. The principal stock, now worked into shingles, is obtained from beneath the surface--old trunks that have been preserved by the wetness of the soil, and that are found, by ' ; sounding" with poles, and raised with hooks or pikes by the negroes. The quarry is giving out, however, and except that lumber, VIRGINIA. 153 and especially shingles, have been in great demand at high prices of late, the business would be almost jit an end. As it is, the principal men engaged in it are turning their attention to other and more distant supplies. A very large purchase had been made by one company In the Florida everglades, and a schooner, with a gang of hands trained in the <( Dismals," was about to sail from Deep-creek, for this new field of operations. S LAVE-LTJMBEKMEN. The labor in the swamp is almost entirely done by slaves ; and the way in which they are managed is interesting and instructive. They are mostly hired by their employers at a rent, perhaps of one hundred dollars a year for each, paid to their owners. They spend one or two months of the winter-- -when it is too wet to work in the swamp--at the residence of their master. At this period little or no work is required of them; their time is their own, and if they can get any employ ment, they will generally keep for themselves what they are paid for it. When it is sufficiently dry--usually early in 'February--they go into the swamp in gangs, each gang under a white overseer. Before leaving, they are all examined and registered at the Court-house, and " passes," good for a year, are given them, in which their features and the marks upon their persons are minutely described. Each man is furnished with a quantity of provisions and clothing, of which, as well as of all that he afterwards draws from the stock in the hands of the overseer, an exact account is kept. LIFE IX THE SWAMP----SLAVES QUASI FREEMEN. Arrived at their destination, a rnde camp is made, huts of 154 OXTR SLAVE STATES. logs, poles, shingles, and "boughs being built, usually upon some place where sliingles bave been worked before, and in which the shavings have accumulated in small hillocks upon the soft sur face of the ground. The slave lumberman then lives measurably as a free man; hunts, fishes, cats, drinks, smokes and sleeps, plays and works, each -when and as much as he pleases. It is only required of him that he shall have made, after half a year has passed, such a quantity of shingles as shall be worth to his master so much money as is paid to his owner for his services, and shall refund the value of the clothing and provisions he has required. No "driving" at his work is attempted or needed. No force is used to overcome the indolence peculiar to the negro. The overseer merely takes a daily account of the number of shingles each man adds to the general stock, and employs another set of hands, with mules, to draw them to a point from which they can be shipped, and where they are, from time to time, called for by a schooner. At the end of five months the gang returns to dry-land, and a statement of account from the overseer's book is drawn up, some thing like the following: Sam Bo to Jolin Doc, Dr. Feb. 1. To clothing (outfit).---... .....---. Mar. 10. To clothing', as per overseer's account, Feb. 1. To bacon and meal (outfit).--..... July 1. To stores drawn in swamp, as per overseer's account, ____________ July 1. To half-yearly hire, paid Ins owner-- $500 2 25 19 UO 4 75 50 00 $81 00 's "account, 10c.-...-.!__......--. 100 00 VIRGINIA. 1-55 which is immediately paid him, and which, together with the proceeds of sale of peltry which he has got while in tho swamp, he is always allowed to make use of us his own. No liquor is sold or served to the negroes in the swamp, and, as their first want when they come out of it is an excitement, most of their money goes to the grog-shops. After a. short vacation, the whole gang is taken in the schooner to spend another five months in the swamp as .before. If they are good hands and work steadily, they will commonly he hired again, and so confirming, will spend most of their lives at it. They almost invariably have excellent health, as do also the white men engaged hi the business. Thoy all con sider the water of "the Dismals" to have a medicinal virtue, and cpiite probably it is a mild tonic. It is greenish iri color, and I thought I detected a slightly resinous taste upon first drinking it. Upon entering the swamp also, an agreeable resinous odor, resembling that of a hemlock forest, was perceptible. THE EFFECT OF PAYING 'WAGTS TO SLAVES. The negroes working in the swamp were more sprightly and straight-forward in their manner and conversation than any field-hand plantation-negroes that I saw at the South ; two or three of their employers with whom I cpnversed spoke well of them, as compared with other slaves, and made no complaints of "rascality" or laziness. One of those gentlemen told mo of a remarkable case of providence and good sense in a negro that he had employed in the swamp for many years. He was so trust-worthy, that lie had once let him