USA > Georgia > Ten years on a Georgia plantation since the war > Part 10
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ADDENDA.
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HAVING written the foregoing pages some years ago, and having just returned from another visit to the South, after an absence of six years, I cannot refrain from adding a few words with regard to the condition of the negroes now and formerly, and their own manner of speaking of their condition as slaves. The question whether slavery is or is not a moral wrong I do not wish or intend to discuss; but in urging the injustice of requiring labour from people to whom no wages were paid, which was formerly one of the charges brought against the masters, it seems strange that wages were always thought of as mere money payments, and the
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fact that the negroes were fed, clothed, and housed at their masters' expense was never taken into account as wages, although often taking more money out of the owner's pocket than if the ordinary labourers' wages had been paid in hard money. Besides these items, a doctor's services were furnished, one being paid a certain yearly salary for visiting the plantation, three times a week I think it was, and of course all medicines were given to them free of charge. They were, besides, allowed to raise poultry to sell, and chickens, eggs, and the pretty baskets they used to make often brought the industrious ones in a nice little income of their own. At Christ- mas all the head men received a present of money, some being as high as ten pounds, and every deserving negro was similarly rewarded.
These facts I learned accidentally in look- ing over the old plantation books which fell into my hands about a year ago. I also found from old letters how particular the owners
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always were to have the best goods fur- nished for the people's clothing. The winter material was a heavy woollen cloth called Welsh plains, which was imported from England, and many of the letters contained apologies and explanations from the Liver- pool firm who furnished the goods about the quality, which had evidently been found fault with. The character of the goods was also confirmed by the testimony of the negroes themselves, my housemaid saying one day à propos of the heavy blankets on my bed, ' Ah, in de old time we hab blankets like dese gib to us, but now we can only buy such poor ones dey no good at all ;' and another, not one of our people, meeting us in a shop in Darien, turned from the rather flimsy cloth he was bargaining for, and taking hold of the dark blue tweed of my husband's coat, said, ' Sar, ware you git dis stuff ? We used to git dis kind before the war, but now we neber sees it.'
Two extracts from letters written by
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former agents to my great-uncle about the negroes bear such strong testimony to the way in which the slaves were thought of, spoken of, and treated 'in de old time,' that I cannot resist copying them, especially as it was with a feeling of real pleasure that I read them myself. One was written in 1827 and the other in 1828.
In the first the overseer writes : 'I killed twenty-eight head of beef for the people's Christmas dinner. I can do more with them in this way than if all the hides of the cattle were made into lashes !' In the other he says, ' You justly observe that if punishment is in one hand, reward should be in the other. There is but one way of managing negroes, particu- larly with so large a gang as I have to do with, and many of them in point of intellect far superior to the mass of common whites about us. A faithful distribution of rewards and punishments, and different modes of punishment ; not always resorting to the lash, but confinement at home, cutting short some
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privilege, and never inflicting punishment without regular trial. We save many tons of rice by giving one to each driver ; it makes them active and watchful.'
So much for their treatment as slaves, and surely food, clothing, medicine and medi- cal attendance, to say nothing of the twenty- eight head of beef killed for their Christmas dinner, might justly be regarded as wages or an equivalent for their labour. It is quite true they were not free to leave the place or choose their masters, but, until a very few years ago, were the majority of English la- bourers able to change their places or better their condition ? Far less well off in point of food, clothing, and houses, the low wages and large families of the English labourer tied him to the soil as effectually as ever slavery did the negroes ; and I doubt our slaves being will- ing to change places with the free English labourer of those days, had the change been offered him.
Now with regard to their own views
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regarding their condition. They were always represented, and supposed to be by the Abolitionists, as pining for freedom, thirsting for education, and breaking their hearts over ill-treatment, separation from their children, and so on. Now in answer to this, which still stands as a reproach against those who ever owned slaves, I give one or two stories from the lips of the negroes themselves, and also a few facts of the present state of things twenty years after the emancipation of the slaves.
One of our former drivers was robbed by one of the other negroes of two hundred dollars he had laid by, and in speaking of it he said with a sigh, ' Ah, missus, in de ole time de people work all day and sleep all night, and hab no time for 'teal ;' evidently thinking that state better than the present condition of freedom to be idle, and its natural consequence, dishonesty. Another poor old man, who had had his house burnt down and lost all his little savings, chickens,
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and pigs, happened to mention that his wife had died shortly before. I had not heard it, and told him so, expressing my sorrow at the same time. 'You didn't know it, missus !' said the old man, in a tone of indignant sur- prise. 'Ah, tings different now from de ole times ; den if any of de people die, de ober- seer hab to write to Massa John or Massa Peirce, and tell 'em so-and-so's dead, but now de people die and dey buried, and nobody know noting about it.' Another amused me very much by regretting that he was no longer allowed to correct the young people indiscriminately, and said that formerly if you ' flogged de children de parents much obliged to you, but now de young people 'lowed to grow up wid no principle.'
One old man, who had been sold many years ago, had found his way back after all this time to the old home, and was full of affec- tionate gratitude at being allowed once more to see us. When I said, 'I hope you found some of your own people left, Bristol,' he said,
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' I not come to see dem, missus, I come to see my ole massa's family, and it rejoiced my heart to see you and dear little missus.'
These it may be said are the old people, but I found the young ones had just the same feeling of belonging to the same place and family as their fathers, constantly saying, when I met them off the place and did not recognise them, 'We your people, missus ; ' and these, many of them, were not even born in slavery, and were not working for us now.
So much for their own feeling as regards their past condition of servitude. I don't for one moment pretend that they would willingly return to slavery, any more than we would have them slaves again, but I merely give these instances to show that they did not suffer under the system or regard it with the horror they were supposed to do by all the advocates of abolition.
Now for their present moral, physical, and intellectual condition, their own people will tell you of each other, that they will not
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only steal money when they get the chance, but their neighbours' poultry, and in fact nearly all they can lay their hands on. Yet before the war absolute confidence was placed in their trustworthiness, and that we were justified in so doing will be seen by some stories I have told in the foregoing pages, of their faithful guardianship of our property, and even money, during the trying war times.
Formerly, the race was a most prolific one, and ten or fifteen children a common number to a family ; now two or three seem to be the usual allowance, and many of the young women at whose weddings I had assisted ten years or so ago, in answer to my question, ' Have you any children ?' would answer, ' I had' one, two, or three, as the* case might be, ' but dey all dead.' Always inclined to be immoral, they have now thrown all semblance of chastity to the winds, and when I said to my old nurse how shocked and grieved I was to find how
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ill-conducted the young girls were, so much worse than they used to be, she said, ' Missus, dere not one decent gal left in de place.' Their thirst for knowledge, which made young and old go to school as soon as the war was over, seems to have been quenched entirely, for, with one or two laudable excep- tions, no one sends even their children to school now, and soon we shall have to intro- duce compulsory education. The only two negroes on the place who can write and add up accounts are the one we had educated at the North, and the one we had in England for three years. And yet it is twenty years since they were freed, and have been their own masters.
What has become of their longing for better things, and what is to become of them, poor people, ignorant and degraded as they are, and, so far as one can see, becoming more and more so ? As far as the masters are concerned, they are far better off-re- lieved from the terrible load of responsi-
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bility which slavery entailed, and I have always been thankful that before the pro- perty came into my hands, the slaves were freed. But for the negroes, I cannot help thinking things are worse than when they were disciplined and controlled by. a superior race, notwithstanding the drawbacks to the system, and, in some cases, grave abuses attending it. If slavery made a Legree, it also made an Uncle Tom.
APPENDIX.
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No. I.
OUR ISLAND HOME.
Butler's Island, Georgia.
Dear E-, I feel anxious to tell you, as you no doubt also will be ready to learn, something concerning our island home in the South. Here we are then, safely settled down on a rice plantation in Georgia, about 4,000 miles away from our friends on your side of the water, and yet hearing every day the same language spoken, although it must be confessed in a very peculiar and hardly in- telligible manner, by our sable brethren (I believe 'brethren' is the proper term in these free and enlightened days).
R
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I am monarch of all I survey, which is an island of about 1,600 acres, surrounded by a muddy-looking river, called by the romantic- sounding Indian name of the Altamaha. How far prettier these Indian names are than our Anglo-Saxon. Take for instance, Chicago, Indiana, Ogeechee, Cincinnati, Omaha, &c. ; and what a pity they did not in every case retain the old names, and call New York Manhattan, which it really is.
Our castle is a neat but not gaudy little frame house, with a piazza in front of it, from which you descend by six steps into a garden, or rather small grove of orange trees, pal- mettoes, oleanders, and roses. The first- named are laden with golden fruit, of a quality unsurpassed anywhere in the world, I am bold to say, for size and sweet- ness. We are hard at work now packing them up for market, and shall have over 100 barrels for sale. The interior of the man- sion is in accordance with its modest exte- rior ; a small dining-room, a small drawing-
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room, a very small office or study, a small hall, a pantry, and two comfortable bed- rooms on the ground-floor, and two more comfortable bedrooms over the dining and drawing-rooms. At the rear of the house about twelve yards, is what is called the colony, where are situated the kitchen, ser- vants' sitting-room and bedrooms, the laundry and dairy, and in a corner of the yard is a turkey-house, full of prime Christmas fowl. Behind the colony is Settlement No. I, where the coloured people (I believe this also is the correct term) reside. It consists of an avenue of orange trees, on each side of which are rows of wooden houses, and at the end of which, facing the avenue, is what was the old hospital, but which is now half of it the church and the other half the resi- dence of our English labourers, eight in number. Immediately in front of our garden is the Altamaha river, with the land- ing-place for the boats, and from which all the water-supply is drawn. On the left of us
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is the overseer's house, a larger and more imposing edifice, although not so comfortable as ours. On the right are the barns and the new threshing mill and engine, which are very nearly finished, and present a magnificent appearance from the river. The old mill, with all the valuable machinery, was burnt down a year ago. The rest of the Island con- sists of rice-fields, of which about 1,000 acres are under cultivation or cultivable, some marsh land covered with thick bamboo and reeds, in which the wild duck do congregate, and some scrubby brushwood ; also Settle- ments Nos. 2 and 3, an old, rickety, but very large barn, a ruined mill, a ruined sugar-house. Of the rice plantation and method of culti- vating it, I shall hope to write at some future time when I know more about it. I shall also reserve my account of the liberated negro until I know more of him. I fear, however, that further acquaintance with that much-abused, and at the same time much over-rated specimen of humanity, will not
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tend to raise him much in my estimation. At present I have plenty to tell you about.
And first I must say something about our Church Services. Last Sunday we met, at II A.M., in the room which has for some years been used as the Chapel for the negroes, but which is small and not orna- mented. I have in my eye a very good- sized room at the overseer's house, which I think I can make into quite a nice little Chapel. However, for the present we have to do with the little chamber at the old hos- pital, and here, on Sunday, I read through the service, and spoke to them on the sub- ject of the Gospel for the day, viz., the miraculous feeding of the multitude with the loaves and fishes. I try and speak to them in as simple language as I can, as I fear they (the negroes) are very ignorant, although they have a minister of their own, and ser- vices twice a week. Concerning their reli- gion and services I shall tell you more when I write to you on the subject of the negro.
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I found them very attentive, and we sang the Old Hundredth and another hymn out of the American Hymnal, which had been taught them. Sunday afternoon, at three P.M., I had school for the children, but which was also at- tended by quite old people. We commenced by singing, then I said a few prayers, next I heard the children the Catechism and ex- plained it to them, and after closing with hymns and prayers, we commenced practising chants and hymns. They are very quick at learning tunes, and I think in time we shall get a fair choir. Fancy a choir of small frizzle-headed little niggers in white sur- plices! We shall have to have a regular little church built first before we get to that. They have their own service in the evening.
I intend, as soon as we are quite settled down, to start a night school for them twice a week. Now I must tell you about a wedding which I performed last Saturday. The bridegroom was a grandfather, the bride a grandmother, both very respectable people.
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The hour appointed was nine in the evening. (It is quite the custom to be married in the evening all through the United States.) The little Chapel was crowded by a well-behaved congregation of blackies. The bride, although having reached years of discretion and having gone through the ceremony before, was as bashful and coy as blushing seventeen. She was literally supported by her bridesmaid (a lady of about the same age), who clutched her hard by the arm as if she was afraid she might escape. The bride's dress was simple and neat-a white apron over a stuff gown, and a white turban on, and white cotton gloves on her hands, one of which held a white hand- kerchief, folded in the form of a fan or dinner napkin in front of her face, to hide, I suppose, her blushes, if indeed she could have shown them on her jet-black face. The groom was dressed in a sober suit of black with a blue kerchief. When I put the all-important question, 'Chatham, wilt thou have this woman to thy wedded wife ? ' &c., the answer
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was promptly given, ' I will, massa, I will :' and when I asked ' Who giveth this woman to be married to this man ?' the father of the Island, old Angus, spoke out boldly, ' I do, massa, with all my heart.' The behaviour of all, however, was reverent throughout, more so than on another occasion, three or four years ago, when the old black preacher came over from another island to marry a couple, and was requested by their mistress to use the Prayer Book Service, which (although he was able to read) he did not understand. Consequently, he would read through all the Rubrics, and was going on through the Service for Visitation of the Sick, when he was judiciously stopped. J. W. L.
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No. 2.
OUR HARVEST HOME.
Dear E-, -The 28th of November, 1873, will be likely to be long remembered by the inhabitants of Butler's Island, Georgia. Thursday, the 27th, was the day appointed by the President as the annual Thanksgiving Day, to be observed throughout the States ; and here let me observe by the way, that it would be well if our civil and ecclesiastical authorities in England would follow the example of America in this, and have one special day set apart for thanksgiving to the Almighty for the ingathering of the fruits of the earth. In the American Prayer Book there is moreover a Form of Prayer and Thanksgiving, to be used yearly on this occasion. Well, as I have said, the 27th was the day appointed, and we had made every preparation for the due observance of
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that day, but the elements were unpropitious. The rain fell in torrents, and when it does rain here, which is not often, it comes down in real earnest, and so we were forced to put off our festival to the 28th, and were well rewarded by doing so, as the sun once more shone brightly, and the wind, which had been so boisterous, sobered down, and the air was fresh and balmy. At twelve o'clock we assembled in the small room which does duty for our church, which was decorated with illuminated texts and branches of palmetto, red cedar, and other evergreens, while from the centre of the room was suspended a big orange branch, laden with the ripe fruit. The room was as full as it could hold of negroes, amongst whom here and there were a few white faces, the English- men we had brought with us, and the old doctor from the neighbouring town, being among the latter. The hymns selected were the Old Hundredth, and the Harvest Hymn, No. 224, from Hymns Ancient and Modern,
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which were heartily sung by our youthful black choir, all the people joining in the last two lines of the hymn-
For his mercies still endure, Ever faithful, ever sure.
At the close of the service I delivered a short address on the object of our gathering, and the necessity of preparing ourselves for the great harvest at the end of the world, Deut. viii. 10, 11. Service ended, we marched in procession to the new barn, a youthful black leading the van with a banner (which I had brought with me from England), on which were inscribed the words, 'The Lord of the Harvest.' Behind the banner-bearer I walked, and then the three black captains or foremen of the gangs. After which, the men two and two; and then the women, dressed in Sunday best, and with picturesque turbans on their heads.
The barn which was to be the banquet- ing hall for the occasion is a large building which has only just been completed, and
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which consists of two storeys, each 60 feet long by 25 broad. The feast was to take place in the upper storey, and here great preparations had been made in the way of decorations. The walls were draped round with old curtains, on which were texts and mottoes. On one side, in large letters formed of orange leaves, was ' Praise ye the Lord of the Harvest,' on the other side, 'Welcome to our Home,' and 'The Lord bless our Home.' Along the base of the wall was the fringe formed of the graceful fan-like palmetto, whilst stars formed of the same plant were fixed on each side of the texts. The cedar, the cypress, the orange, the hickory, and other evergreens were also brought into requisition, whilst suspended from the topmost beams of the hall were the Union Jack of Old England, and the Stars and Stripes of America, below which hung large bunches of oranges and ears of rice, representing the produce of the Island. About one hundred coloured people sat down to a substantial
,
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repast, consisting of stewed oysters, sweet potatoes, rice, rounds of beef, ham, bacon, hominy, oranges, and coffee, and it is need- less to say that they did ample justice to the good things that were set before them. There were no toasts after dinner, as the fashion of toast-giving has not yet reached this part of the world, and probably would not have been understood by the sable guests. Din- ner ended, we had, by way of sports, some excellent boat and canoe races along the broad river Altamaha, which flows at the foot of the barn. The way these negroes manage their small vessels is remarkable. The canoes are cut out of a single log of cypress, and each nigger 'paddles his own canoe' with great dexterity, using his paddle first on one side then on the other. The spectators were greatly excited, and 'Quash wins' was heard on all sides, as the young, good-looking, dark-skinned carpenter shot past, showing his pearly teeth under his black moustache. The regatta ended, it was nearly
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dark, but the young people requested that they might shout for the new barn. This was not done, as you might be led to suppose, by loud hurrahs-much more systematic than that. The girls and boys assembled in the upper storey where we had feasted, and, hav- ing formed in a circle, commenced dancing or rather shuffling round (as they do not lift the heel), each one following close behind the other, and all singing as they danced a sort of dirge or hymn. As they continued they got louder in their song and more shuffling in their gait. It was curious, but not elegant. I cannot help thinking it is a remnant of their old country, as I have seen in Egypt a very similar performance, only rather more heathenish. Having finished their shouting, they returned peacefully to their homes, and so ended the first Harvest Festival celebrated on Butler's Island. J. W. L.
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No. 3.
CHRISTMAS SHOPPING DOWN SOUTH.
Dear E-, -Christmas shopping down South is a very different matter from shop- ping at the fashionable Spa within two miles of your house, and finding there every- thing necessary for your Christmas wants. Savannah is our Leamington, and is about 100 miles distant. Now, if we had the ex- press trains of the Great Western Railway or London and North Western Railway close by, we might, at slight risk in these days to our necks, do it comfortably in three hours' time. As it is, however, the time occupied in getting to our shopping town is about eighteen hours, either by land or water, pro- vided, that is, that the steamboats do not get stranded on a sandbank, or the trains do not break down in a swamp. Having several purchases to make in the way of knicknacks
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for our Christmas tree, green vegetables for our Christmas dinner, mules for our ploughs ; and, moreover, having to see after all our goods, which had just arrived at Savannah by the steamer 'Darien,' after being three months on the road, it was determined that I should set out for the city of Savannah, and the account of my journey to and fro is what I purpose now to give you. I was fortunate enough to get a passage in the steamer of our rice factor, Major W-, who had come down partly on a pleasure trip and partly to get a load of rice, and who had on board with him the Bishop of the Diocese, a colonel, a naval captain, and a planter, all of whom, together with your humble servant, slept in a row on the floor of the saloon or cabin, which measured about 18ft. by 12ft. Well, it was arranged I should meet the steamer at 7 P.M. in the evening at Darien, and I accordingly rowed over there, but after waiting for two hours, neither seeing nor hearing anything of her, and supposing that she had either altered
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her course or was high and dry on a sand- bank, I returned home again. I had not, however, been at home more than half an hour before I heard the whistle of the steamer in the distance, and immediately ordered the boat out with two fresh rowers, and set off as fast as we could go for Darien. Here I found her taking in fuel, and received a hearty welcome from all on board. After two hours' delay at Darien, we started about the middle of the night up the winding course of the river, and through the treacherous Romiley Marsh, where you can, in places, touch both shores of the land with a long pole. We arrived at Savannah without any mishap after twenty-four hours' journey, not reckoning the time I had to wait at Darien.
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