USA > Georgia > Ten years on a Georgia plantation since the war > Part 12
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friends of Massa James, and more hand- shaking. At length we reached our destina- tion, a pretty place called Hamilton, situated on the sea-shore, with another house belong- ing to the family of my friend, and in which his elder brother lived a regular hermit's life. The doors and walls were covered with texts, and the young hermit was living chiefly on oysters and unleavened bread, and rendering the negroes aid to satisfy their temporal and spiritual wants. He was evi- dently quite a character, and I should like to have seen more of him, but we had to find our way over to Brunswick (having sent our own boat back), so we got three stalwart negroes to row us across the Sound in their boat, and reached Brunswick (thirteen miles' distance), in the evening, after having enjoyed our expedition to St. Simon's very much. J. W. L.
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No. 6.
THE EMANCIPATED AFRICAN.
Dear E-, -The subject I have un- dertaken to write to you about is by no means as easy a one as might at first appear. It is indeed easy enough for a traveller passing rapidly through the Southern States, or get- ting his opinion of the negroes as Hepworth Dixon did from what he saw of the waiters at a Richmond hotel,-it is easy enough for such travellers to write a lot of nonsense about the intelligence of the coloured man, the mix- ture of races, miscegination, &c. But most travellers see nothing of the inner life and cha- racter of these people, and an American might just as well get his opinion of a Dorsetshire labourer from what he saw of a waiter at the Langham Hotel, as a traveller in the United
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States form his opinion of plantation negroes from what he saw of Eli Brown or other in- telligent and civil waiters at the large hotels. To know and understand the negro in his present position, you must see and hear him on the floor of the State Legislature, and transact business with him on a plantation, as well as chat familiarly with him on a plea- sure excursion, or be waited on by him in an hotel. I have done all this, and therefore have some authority in speaking, and yet I can scarcely say that I know the emancipated African thoroughly yet.
The fact is the poor negro has since the war been placed in an entirely false position, and is therefore not to be blamed for many of the absurdities he has committed, seeing that he has been urged on by Northern ' carpet-baggers" and Southern 'scalaways,'
1 Carpet-baggers are unscrupulous men who rushed down from the North after the war, to see what they could pick up for themselves from the ruins of the South. ' Scala- ways'-Southerners, who to serve their own ends professed allegiance to the North, and betrayed their own friends.
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who have used him as a tool to further their own nefarious ends.
The great mistake committed by the North was giving the negroes the franchise so soon after their emancipation, when they were not the least prepared for it. In 1865 Slavery was abolished, and no one even among the Southerners, I venture to say, would wish it back. In 1868 they were declared citizens of the United States, and in 1870 they had the right of voting given them, and at the same time persons concerned in the rebellion were excluded from public trusts by what was called the 'iron-clad ' oath ; and as if this was not enough, last year the Civil Rights Bill was passed, by which negroes were to be placed on a perfect equality with whites, who were to be compelled to travel in the same cars with them, and to send their children to the same schools. The con- sequence of all this is that where there is a majority of negroes, as is the case in the States of Louisiana, Mississippi, and South
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Carolina, these States are placed completely under negro rule, and scenes occur in the State Legislatures which baffle description. I recollect at the beginning of 1870 being at Montgomery, the capital of Alabama, and paying a visit to the State House there when a discussion was going on with respect to a large grant which was to be made for the building of the Alabama and Chattanooga Railway, the real object of which was to put money into the pockets of certain carpet- baggers, who, in order to gain their object had bribed all the negroes to vote for the passing of the Bill. The scene was an excit- ing one. Several negro members were present, with their legs stuck up on the desks in front of them, and spitting all about them in free and independent fashion. One gentleman having spoken for some time against the Bill, and having reiterated his condemnation of it as a fraudulent speculation, a stout negro member for Mobile sprung up and said, ' Mister Speaker, when yesterday I spoke, I
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was not allowed to go on because you said I spoke twice on same subject. Now what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. Dis member is saying over and over again de same thing ; why don't you tell him to sit down ? for what is sauce for' &c. To which the Speaker said, 'Sit down yourself, sir.' Another member (a carpet-bagger) jumped up and shook his fist in the speaking member's face, and told him he was a liar, and if he would come outside he would give him satisfaction.
This is nothing, however, to what has been going on in South Carolina this last session. Poor South Carolina, formerly the proudest State in America, boasting of her ancient families, remarkable for her wealth, culture, and refinement, now prostrate in the dust, ruled over by her former slaves, an old aristocratic society replaced by the most ignorant democracy that mankind ever saw invested with the functions of government. Of the one hundred and four representatives,
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there are but twenty-three representatives of her old civilisation, and these few can only look on at the squabbling crowd amongst whom they sit as silent enforced auditors. Of the 101 remaining, 94 are coloured, and 7 their white allies. The few honest amongst them see plundering and corruption going on on all sides, and can do nothing. Here is a specimen of the oratory of the House of Representatives at Columbia, the capital of South Carolina, where formerly such accom- plished orators as Calhoun, Preston, Hayne, &c., were wont to be heard with admiration.
The debate was on Penitentiary Appro- priations.
ivinort (negro) : The appropriation is not a bit too large.
Humbert (negro) : The institution ought to be self-sustaining. The member only wants a grab at the money.
Hurley (negro) : Mr. Speaker : True-
Humbert (to Hurley) : You shet you myuf, sah ! (Roars of laughter.)
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Greene (negro) : That thief from Darling- ton (Humbert)-
Humbert: If I have robbed anything, I expect to be ku-kluxed by just such highway robbers as the member (Greene) from Beau- fort.
Greene : If the Governor were not such a coward, he would have cowhided you before this, or got somebody else to do it.
Hurley : If the gentleman from Beaufort (Greene) would allow the weapon named to be sliced from his cuticle, I might submit to the castigation.
Such is one of the numerous scenes enacted in some of the State Legislatures in the South. The negroes have it all their own way, and rob and plunder as they please. The Governor of South Carolina lives in luxury, and treats his soldiers to champagne, while the miserable planters have to pay taxes amounting to half their income, and if they fail to pay, their property is confis- cated.
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Louisiana and Mississippi are not much better off. The former has an ignorant negro barber for its Lieutenant-Governor, and the latter has just selected a negro steam- boat porter as its United States Senator, filling the place once occupied by Jefferson Davis.
I might tell you much more with regard to those States that are now in the hands of the negroes, but enough has been said to show the terrible condition in which these States are now after the civil war. In a future letter I shall speak more fully upon the past and present condition of the South. Georgia, I am happy to say, owing to the prudent policy of her people and the energies of a population in possession of a State rich in resources of every kind-industrial, com- mercial, and mineral-has been able to shake off the carpet-bag and negro yoke, and is in a fair way to recover her independence. Still even in Georgia, and especially in our imme- diate neighbourhood, a very bad influence
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has been exercised over the negroes, which has caused us no small difficulty in one's dealings with them.
We have just heard of the death of a cer- tain doctor who originally came from Phila- delphia, and who was the means of stirring up an immense deal of ill-feeling amongst the coloured inhabitants of Darien, over whom he had gained considerable power, which he used for his own ends. I trust his death may be the means of making the people more peaceful and reconciled. From what has been said, it will be seen that most of the difficulties that have arisen between the negroes and their former masters have been owing to the pernicious influences that have been brought to bear on them by un- scrupulous and bad men. Naturally they are quiet and peaceful enough, and I do not believe that they would ever have caused any trouble if they had been left to themselves. It is only surprising that they have behaved as well as they have, and that there was no
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insurrection amongst them during the war, When the war began, the Butler's Island negroes were all taken by one of the over- seers up into the interior, and immediately on the conclusion of the war they returned to the Island, although they were free to go where they would.
A gentleman in the South, who went all through the war, told me that a negro boy of his accompanied him all the time, and that on one occasion, when he was going into battle, he gave him his great-coat and a sword, to take home to his family in case he should be killed. After the battle the boy made inquiries, and it was reported that his master was dead. The boy set off straight home with his master's things, although he had many liberal offers from Northern officers.
Mr. C- was not killed or wounded ; and after the battle got, leave to go on fur- lough for a short time. On his way home he was walking through a Southern city, when he saw a strange-looking figure coming
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towards him, which on nearing he perceived was his negro boy, clad in his long military cloak, and the sword dangling by his side, grinning from ear to ear with delight at the sight of his master.
Many other tales have I heard of their faithfulness and attachment to their old masters which I have not time to relate. The fact is, they are very like children, not hard to manage if kindly treated, but very easily led astray by bad advisers. They were encouraged in the idea that freedom meant no work, twenty acres of land, a mule, a gun, a watch, and an umbrella ; and it was some time before they learnt that it would be necessary for them to work to support them- selves and to obtain the above-named luxuries. An old negro man named Bran, who used to live at St. Simon's before the war, came the other day to see my wife at Brunswick. The poor old man seemed much broken, and burst into tears on seeing her. He then told us his sad tale. After
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the war he had bought a patch of ground (about twelve acres) in the pine woods, on the mainland. He began well, and had a few heifers and some fowls, but of late mis- fortunes had come thick upon him ; his crops, which would never have been very good on such land, had entirely failed. All his stock of chickens and heifers had been stolen by the coloured gentry in the neighbourhood. His son had left him to set up for himself, and lately his old wife, for whom he had a great affection, had died, and he was left alone in his old age with no means of support. At the conclusion of his pitiable tale, he again broke down and sobbed like a child. J. W. L.
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No. 7.
OUR POST TOWN.
Dear E-, It is some time now since I have written to you from this side of the Atlantic. Pray accept my apologies, and at the same time my good wishes for the New Year. As I have never told you anything as yet about our market and post town, I shall begin my letter with a short account of that interesting town, or rather ' city ' as they call it.
And first, do not confuse this Darien with the Isthmus of Darien, near Panama, in South America. The only thing approaching to an isthmus that we have is a strip of land which formerly joined two parts of General's Island, which island lies between us and the city of Darien. This piece of land had a canal cut through it long before the canal through the great Isthmus of Darien was ever talked X
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about, and was accomplished in this wise-so local tradition tells us. General Oglethorpe, being with his soldiers at Darien, and finding himself hemmed in by the Spaniards, who had blockaded the river Altamaha above and below the town, adopted a bold plan. He
sallied forth at night, and with his soldiers cut through General's Island a canal about three-quarters of a mile in length. As their only tools were their swords, and the obstruc- tions in the shape of cypress roots were very great, it was a big undertaking; but they did it, so we are told, and escaped to St. Simon's Island, and the name of that canal to this day bears testimony to the deed, as it is called ' the General's Cut,' and it is through that cut that we have to row whenever we want to go to market. Whilst he was about it, I wish he had cut it a little deeper, as, when the tide is low, we get stuck in the cut and have to wait for high water, which is not pleasant, especially on a very hot day (and Christmas week the thermometer stood at
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78°), as the muddy banks and low tide are not picturesque or sweet. Having struggled through the cut, we emerge once more into the broad Altamaha, and soon find ourselves at Darien. It is not an imposing city, I am free to confess. It stands on a bluff, i.e. the one piece of high ground between it and Savannah ; marshes to the right of it, marshes to the left of it, marshes in front of it. Adjoining the city of Darien is or was the city of Mackintosh, which, however, never existed except on paper. I have seen the plans of that city, and it is marked out with wide streets, fine squares, cemetery, town hall, &c., but it never was seen except on paper, and has lately been incorporated with Darien. The site has a fine frontage of marsh and reeds, and very much resembles Charles Dickens's ' Eden,' to which poor Martin and Mark Tapley were allured by the glowing descriptions of the Yankee speculators. I wish it did exist as on paper, as we own the greater part of it. But Darien does exist,
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and has several wharves along its banks, where occasionally you may see the steamer from Savannah, or a sailing vessel from Liver- pool loading timber. It was once a cotton port, but the cotton has gone from it to Savan- nah ; now it is a timber port, and last year did a lively business. This year timber is dull, as the market in Europe is overstocked. The Georgian pine is considered the finest in the world, and therefore there will no doubt be a fresh demand before long. The chief port of Darien is, however, not at Darien, but ten miles down the river, at a place called ' Doboy,' and last year there were at one time over sixty vessels waiting to be loaded. Our lead- ing men are the timber merchants, amongst whom are a Northerner, an Irish Canadian, a German, and a Scotchman. They have all come here to make their fortunes, and when they have made them mean to pack up their chattels and go off, as they do not find Darien sufficiently tempting to make it their perma- nent place of residence. Whilst residing here
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they do a good deal for the place, and not the least of their meritorious acts is the build- ing of a Protestant Episcopal Church, which they are about to undertake. It is to be built at the expense of three of them, a Presby- terian, Unitarian, and Methodist. This is, to say the least of it, liberal in every sense of the word, and the sort of liberality you are not likely to meet with in the old country. I referred them to our friend Mr. Robin- son as an architect, and they have received the plans and specifications from the firm of which he was a member at Manchester. I think, from what I have seen of the plans, that it promises to be an ornament to the town, and the town certainly wants ornamen- tation. It might be quite a pretty place if it only had fine buildings and well-paved streets, as there are several fine old evergreen oaks scattered about it, and the view of the river, notwithstanding the marshes, has a certain wild picturesqueness about it. At present the main street is a sandy road, with no
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attempt at paving and no idea of lighting. On each side the buildings are, for the most part, wooden shanties of various dimen- sions. The only two buildings having any pretensions at all are the hotel called the Magnolia House, and the Masonic Hall, and both these buildings are of wood. They have had two fires lately, which have de- molished about a quarter of the city, which, however, will be soon put up again, as it does not take very long to put up these frame houses, and it takes a very short time to burn them down.
A good many Israelites have found their way to this remote district, and it is whispered that their tumble-down shanties and Cheap Jack goods were very heavily insured, and thus both fires began in their quarter ; and, moreover, that they were not losers by the transaction. Be that as it may, it is certain that the insurance companies have declined insuring any more buildings in the city of Darien. The shops here are unlike any you
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would be likely to meet with in your town, or any other town in England. They are emporiums of multitudinous articles ; and although the articles sold are about four times the price and one-fourth as good as the same kind of article in England, yet the variety, I suppose, in some measure makes up for the inferiority.
The purchaser may go into one shop and purchase furniture for his house; stove to warm it, flour, groceries, and potatoes to satisfy his wants ; medicines to heal all sick- ness, a fine dress and bonnet for his better half, toys for his children, ploughs, harness, and other requirements for the farm, and a drop of bad whisky for himself. The chief customers are the negroes, who delight in spending their money as soon as they get it, and who are not particular as to the quality or quantity or price of the article they wish to purchase, and who always choose the brightest of colours and gaudiest of bonnets for their womankind. Amongst other buildings con-
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sumed by the fire was the Post Office; and the postmaster, a genial, accommodating, and very important personage, was for a time rather perplexed as to a temporary post-box for the inhabitants. He has, however, solved the difficulty, and now perambulates the street in a loose coat supplied with large pockets on each side. The citizens soon recognise his genial countenance in the distance, and come out with their letters, which they drop into the receptacles of the perambulating pillar-box. Talking of pillar-box reminds me of pill-box, and this brings me to 'our doctor.' But I feel that I cannot do justice to this old citizen in the short time that is left me, and I must give him a letter to himself, as he is quite a character, and full of anecdotes about ante- bellum times; those good old days when ' the code of honour' was the fashion, which meant that a Southern gentleman was scarcely considered one if he was not prepared, on the slightest pretext, to go forth to slay his neigh- bour or be slain himself, in what is commonly
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known as a duel. Our doctor has the queerest-looking little wooden edifice for his office, and the most grotesque-looking negro boy for an attendant, that ever practising physician boasted of. But, as I have already said, he is worthy of a description by himself, and he shall have it. J. W. L.
No. 8.
' OUR DOCTOR.'
Butler's Island, Darien, Ga.
As you approach the city of Darien in a boat, your attention is drawn to a peculiar- looking erection, standing out alone on the edge of the bluff, and you begin to surmise for what purpose it may be used. It is about the size of a gipsy's caravan, but instead of being set upon wheels, it rests on one side on the bank, the side facing the river being sup- ported by two posts or stilts. There seems to be a door on this side, but as it is about
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Io feet from the ground, and has no steps up to it, you come to the conclusion that there must be some other way of egress and ingress. From the river side it presents the appear- ance of a large Punch and Judy show, and you can almost imagine life-size marionettes going through a performance in the opening which you mistook for the door. On a nearer inspection, you find a board hanging below this opening, on which is inscribed in large letters, 'THE DOCTOR.' This is our doctor's office, and probably you will see our doctor sitting in a rocking chair at the opening, smoking a long pipe, and scanning the last paper that the weekly steamer has brought down. On going up the bank and round to the other side of the wooden erection, you find the door, which is on a level with the bank, and you there discern that the opposite door serves as a window, there being no glazed windows about the establishment. Probably, in the doorway, you will find the doctor's sole attendant, a hideous-looking
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negro boy, marked with small-pox, and with- out shoes or stockings ; his position of rest is generally with his back against one door- post and his legs stuck up against the oppo- site one. This youth has been reared by the doctor from early infancy, and seems to have a sort of dog-like attachment to him, only he irritates his master not a little by insisting upon calling the people of his own nation gentlemen and ladies. 'Sare,' says the boy, ' dere is a gentleman outside wishes to see you.' ' What sort of a gentleman is he ?' says the doctor. 'He's rather a dark-faced one,' says the boy, and retires with a malicious chuckle. The boy's duties are devoted chiefly to attending to a lean shaggy white pony which lives under the erection and between the stilts, and which has to draw the old doctor about in a rickety old buggy. On entering the office you receive a hearty welcome from the old gentleman, who bids you take the only other chair, and offers you the pipe of peace. The office is about 12 by 12, with
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few articles of furniture, an old stove that smokes as hard as its master, a deal table, a few shelves with empty medicine bottles and well-worn magazines lying thereon. The doctor is about three score and ten, small of stature, with grizzly hair and a genial coun- tenance, not much careworn considering the many troubles he has had to go through, for our doctor has seen better days, and delights to tell the patient listener about those better days, when the houses of all the wealthy planters in the neighbourhood were thrown open to him, and when he received a fixed yearly salary from them for attending to their negroes. Those indeed were palmy days for the doctor, and he could boast of fine trotting horses, elegant equipages, and a retinue of slaves. Now, owing to the Yankees, whom he does not love, matters are considerably changed ; he has hard work to find clients, his only horse the old grey pony, his only attendant the negro lad. Notwithstanding this let down in the world, our doctor is still
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cheerful, and can entertain you by the hour with tales of Southern life in former days, enough, indeed, to fill a volume ; and curious times they must have been by his account- semi-barbaric, semi-luxurious, taking one back a hundred years or more to the olden times of English society, when hard drink- ing and sharp duelling were the fashion. Our doctor has had in his medical capa- city to be present at many a duel, and many a sad tale he has to tell of the fatal results. He never had to act first part in one, although he was on one occasion very near it, as he thought at the time. It happened thus. There was in the neighbour- hood, a very eccentric old general who was a great patron of the little doctor's. The doctor, who passed off as a good mimic, was in the habit of taking off the general's eccentricities behind his back. This coming to the ears of the fire-eating general, he sent a note by a friend to the doctor, in which he demanded instant satisfaction for certain
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liberties taken by him, the nature of which would be explained to him. The little doctor trembled in his shoes, for he well knew the fiery temper of the general ; and, moreover, that he could snuff out a candle with a pistol at twelve paces. He tried to obtain some explanation of the general's intentions from the friend, but he could extract nothing more from him than that the doctor should attend the next evening at the hotel where the general was staying, when he would himself give the explanation and demand satisfaction. There was nothing for it but to obey, and so next evening the doctor went in fear and trembling to see the general, whom he found with a few friends round him. 'Sir,' said the general, ' I understand that you have been in the habit of imitating certain peculiarities of mine behind my back, and I sent my friend the Mayor to demand satisfaction of you for the liberty you have taken. The satisfaction that I require of you,' and here the little doctor felt his legs tremble under
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