USA > Georgia > Ten years on a Georgia plantation since the war > Part 3
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Last evening I was sauntering up the road, when about a quarter of a mile from the house I saw something moving very slowly across the path. At first I thought it was a cat, crouching as they do just before they spring, but in a moment more I saw it was a huge rattlesnake, as large round as my arm and quite six feet long. Two little birds were hovering over him, fluttering lower and lower every moment, fascinated by his evil eye and forked tongue which kept dart-
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ing in and out. He was much too busy to notice me, so after looking at him for one moment I flew back to the house, shrieking with all my might, 'Pierce ! John ! Alex ! William !' Hearing my voice they all rushed out, and, armed with sticks, axes, and spades, we proceeded to look for the monster, who however had crawled into the thick bushes when we had reached the spot, and although we could hear him rattle violently when we struck the bushes, the negroes could not see him, and were afraid to go into the thick undergrowth after him, so he still lives to walk abroad, and I-to stay at home.
Mr. James Hamilton Cooper died last week, and was buried at the little church on the island here yesterday. The whole thing was sad in the extreme, and a fit illustration of this people and country. Three years ago he was smitten with paralysis, the result of grief at the loss of his son, loss of his pro- perty, and the ruin of all his hopes and prospects ; since which his life has been one
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of great suffering, until a few days ago, when death released him. Hearing from his son of his death, and the time fixed for his funeral, my father and I drove down in the old mule cart, our only conveyance, nine miles to the church. Here a most terrible scene of desolation met us. The steps of the church were broken down, so we had to walk up a plank to get in ; the roof was fallen in, so that the sun streamed down on our heads ; while the seats were all cut up and marked with the names of Northern soldiers, who had been quartered there during the war. The graveyard was so overgrown with weeds and bushes, and tangled with cob- web like grey moss, that we had difficulty in making our way through to the freshly dug grave.
In about half an hour the funeral party arrived. The coffin was in a cart drawn by one miserable horse, and was followed by the Cooper family on foot, having come this way from the landing, two miles off. From
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the cart to the grave the coffin was carried by four old family negroes, faithful to the end. Standing there I said to myself, ' Some day justice will be done, and the Truth shall be heard above the political din of slander and lies, and the Northern people shall see things as they are, and not through the dark veil of envy, hatred, and malice.' Good-bye. I sail on the 21st for the North.
Yours affectionately,
F
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CHAPTER II.
A FRESH START.
My return to the South in 1867 was much later than I had expected it would be when I left the previous summer, but my father was repairing the house on Butler's Island, and put off my coming, hoping to have things more comfortable for me. When, however, March came, and it was still unfinished, I determined to wait no longer, but if necessary to go direct to St. Simon's, and not to Butler's Island at all. Wishing to make our habitation more comfortable than it was last year, I took from the North six large boxes, contain- ing carpets, curtains, books, and various house- hold articles, and accompanied by my maid, a negro lad I had taken up with me, named
A FRESH START. 49
Pierce, and a little girl of ten, whom I was taking South for companionship, I started again for Georgia on March IO.
Owing to a mistake about my ticket I took the wrong route, went two hundred miles out of my way, and found myself one night, or rather morning at 2 A.M., landed in Augusta, where I was forced to remain until six the next morning, and where I had never been before and did not know anyone even by name. I felt rather nervous, but picking out the most respectable-looking man among my fellow-travellers, I asked him to recom- mend me to the best hotel in Augusta, which he did, and on my arriving at it found to my great joy that it was kept by Mr. Nickleson, formerly of the Mills House, Charleston, who knew who I was perfectly, received me most courteously, and after giving me first a com- fortable bed, and then a good breakfast, sent me off the following morning with a nice little luncheon put up, a most necessary considera- tion, for it was impossible to get anything to
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eat on the road, and the day before we had nothing but some biscuits and an orange which we happened to have brought with us. We reached Savannah that evening, having been exactly ninety-four hours on the road, with no longer rest than the one at Augusta of four hours.
In Savannah I remained a week, and the following Saturday started for St. Simon's Island, sticking fast in the mud as usual, and being delayed in consequence six hours. The K-'s were on board with us, returning to their home for the first time since the war, bringing with them all their household goods and chattels; and a funnier sight than our disembarkation was never seen, as we looked like a genuine party of emigrants. The little wharf was covered with beds, tables, chairs, ploughs, pots, pans, boxes, and trunks, for we also had quantities of things of all kinds. A mule cart awaited us and an ox cart them, into which elegant conveyance we clambered, surrounded by our beds and pots and pans,
A FRESH START. 51
and solemnly took our departure, each in a separate direction, for the opposite ends of the island.
I had not gone far when I met Major D-, a young Philadelphian, who with his brother had rented a plantation next ours, and who is the proud possessor of a horse and waggon, in which he kindly offered to drive me to Hampton Point, an offer I very gladly accepted, thereby reaching my destination sooner than I should otherwise have done. I thought things would be better this year, but notwithstanding my Northern luxuries, I found it much harder to get along. "My father, finding it impossible to manage the rice plantation on Butler's Island and the cotton one here, gladly agreed to the Misses D-'s offer to plant on shares, they undertaking the management here, which allowed him to de- vote all his time to the other place. ,The consequence is that ' the crop,' being the only thing thought of, every able-bodied man, woman, and child is engaged on it, and I find
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my household staff reduced to two. I in- quired after my friend Fisherman George, ' oh, he was ploughing,' so I could have no fish, my cook and his wife have departed alto- gether, and my washerwoman and semp- stress 'are picking cotton seed,' so Major D- smilingly informed me, leaving me Daphne, who is expecting her eleventh con- finement in less than a month, and Alex her husband, who invariably is taken ill just as he ought to get dinner, and Pierce, who since his winter at the North is too fine to do anything but wait at table. So I cook, and my maid does the housework, and as it has rained hard for three days and the kitchen roof is half off, I cook in the dining-room or parlour. Fortu- nately, my provisions are so limited that I have not much to cook ; for five days my food has consisted of hard pilot biscuits, grits cooked in different ways, oysters, and twice, as a great treat, ham and eggs. I brought a box of preserves from the North with me, but half of them upset, and the rest were spoilt.
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A FRESH START.
One window is entirely without a sash, so I have to keep the shutters closed all the time, and over the other I have pasted three pieces of paper where panes should be. My bed stood under a hole in the roof, through which the rain came, and I think if it rains much more there will not be a dry spot left in the house. However, as I would not wait at the North till the house on Butler's Island was finished, I have no one to blame for my present sufferings but myself, and when I get some servants and food from there, I shall be better off.
The people seem to me working fairly well, but Major D -- , used only to Northern labour, is in despair, and says they don't do more than half a day's work, and that he has often to go from house to house to drive them out to work, and then has to sit under a tree in the field to see they don't run away. /
A Mr. G- from New York has bought Canon's Point, and is going to the greatest
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expense to stock it with mules and farming implements of all sorts, insisting upon it that we Southerners don't know how to manage our own places or negroes, and he will show us, but I think he will find out his mistake.1 My father reported the negroes on Butler's
1 1 The history of Canon's Point is as follows. Mr. G- having started by putting the negroes on regular wages expecting them to do regular work in return, and not being at all prepared to go through the lengthy conversations and explanations which they required, utterly failed in his attempts either to manage the negroes or to get any work out of them. Some ran off, some turned sulky, and some stayed and did about half the work. So that at the end of two years he gave the place up in perfect disgust, a little to our amusement, as he had been so sure, like many another Northern man, that all the negroes wanted was regular work and regular wages, overlooking entirely the character of the people he was dealing with, who required a different treatment every day almost ; sometimes coaxing, sometimes scolding, sometimes punishing, sometimes indulging, and always-unlimited patience. After Mr. G- failed in his management of the negroes he gave the place up, leaving an agent there merely to keep possession of the property. This man in turn moved off, leaving about fifty negro families in undisputed posses- sion, who two years later were driven off by a new tenant who undertook to charge them high rent for their land ; and it is now finally in the hands of a Western farmer and his son, who told my husband last winter that they were delighted with the place and climate, but had not learned to manage the negroes yet, as when he scolded them they got scared and ran off, and when he did not they would not work.
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A FRESH START.
Island as working very well, although requir- ing constant supervision. That they should be working well is a favourable sign of their improved steadiness, for, as last year's crop is not yet sold, no division has been possible. So they have begun a second year, not hav- ing yet been paid for the first, and meanwhile they are allowed to draw what food, clothing, and money they want, all of which I fear will make trouble when the day of settlement comes, but it is pleasant to see how completely they trust us.
On both places the work is done on the old system, by task. We tried working by the day, indeed I think we were obliged to do so by the agent of the Freedmen's Bureau, to whom all our contracts had to be submitted, but we found it did not answer at all, the negroes themselves begging to be allowed to go back to the old task system. One man indignantly asked Major D- what the use of being free was, if he had to work harder than when he was a slave. To which Major
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D-, exasperated by their laziness, replied that they would find being free meant harder work than they had ever done before, or starvation.
In all other ways the work went on just as it did in the old times. The force, of about three hundred, was divided into gangs, each working under a head man-the old negro drivers, who are now called captains, out of compliment to the changed times. These men make a return of the work each night, and it is very amusing to hear them say, as each man's name is called, ' He done him work ;' 'He done half him task ;' or 'Ain't sh'um' (have not seen him). They often did overwork when urged, and were of course credited for the same on the books. ¿ To make them do odd jobs was hopeless, as I found when I got some hands from Butler's Island, and tried to make them clear up the grounds about the house, cut the undergrowth and make a garden, &c. Unless I stayed on the spot all the time, the instant I disappeared they dis-
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appeared as well. On one occasion, having succeeded in getting a couple of cows, I set a man to churn some butter. After leaving him for a few moments, I returned to find him sitting on the floor with the churn between his legs, turning the handle slowly, about once a minute. 'Cato,' I exclaimed, ' that will never do. You must turn just as fast as ever you can to make butter !' Looking up very gravely, he replied, ‘Missus, in dis country de butter must be coaxed ; der no good to hurry.' And I generally found that if I wanted a thing done I first had to tell the negroes to do it, then show them how, and finally do it myself. Their way of managing not to do it was very ingenious, for they always were perfectly good-tempered, and received my orders with, 'Dat's so, missus ; just as missus says,' and then always some- how or other left the thing undone.
The old people were up to all sorts of tricks to impose upon my charity, and get some favour out of me. They were far too old
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and infirm to work for me, but once let them get a bit of ground of their own given to them, and they became quite young and strong again. One old woman, called Charity, who represented herself as unable to move, and entirely dependent on my goodness for food &c., I found was in the habit of walking six miles almost every day to take eggs to Major D- to sell. I was complaining once to him of my want of provisions, and said, 'I can't even get eggs ; in old times all the old women had eggs and chickens to sell, but they none of them seem to have any left.' ' Why,' said he, ' we get eggs regularly from one of your old women, who walks down every day or two to us ; Charity her name is.' ' Charity ! impossible,' I exclaimed ; 'she can hardly crawl round here from her hut.' 'It is true though, nevertheless,' said he. So the next time Mistress Charity presented herself, almost on all fours, and said, 'Do, dear missus, give me something for eat,' I said, ' No, you old humbug, I won't give you one
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A FRESH START.
thing more. You know how much I want eggs, and yet you never told me you had any, and take them off to Major D -- to sell, because you think if I know you have eggs to sell I won't give you things.' For one moment the old wretch was taken aback at being found out, and then her ready negro wit came to her aid, and she exclaimed with a horrified and indignant air, 'Me sell eggs to me dear missus. Neber sell her eggs ; gib dem to her.' I need hardly say she had never given me one, but after that did sell them to me.
I spent my birthday at the South, and my maid telling the people that it was my birth- day, they came up in the evening to 'shout for me.' A negro must dance and sing, and as their religion, which is very strict in such matters, forbids secular dancing, they take it out in religious exercise, call it 'shouting,' and explained to me that the difference between the two was, that in their religious dancing they did not ' lift the heel.' All day
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they were bringing me little presents of honey, eggs, flowers, &c., and in the evening about fifty of them, of all sizes and ages and of both sexes, headed by old Uncle John, the preacher, collected in front of the house to 'shout.' First they lit two huge fires of blazing pine logs, around which they began to move with a slow shuffling step, singing a hymn beginning ' I wants to climb up Jacob's ladder.' Getting warmed up by degrees, they went faster and faster, shouting louder and louder, until they looked like a parcel of mad fiends. The children, finding themselves kicked over in the general mêlée, formed a circle on their own account, and went round like small catherine wheels.
When, after nearly an hour's performance, I went down to thank them, and to stop them -for it was getting dreadful, and I thought some of them would have fits-I found it no easy matter to do so, they were so excited. One of them, rushing up to my father, seized him by the hand, exclaiming, 'Massa, when
A FRESH START. 61
your birthday ? We must "shout " for you.' ' Oh, Tony,' said my father, 'my birthday is long passed.' Upon which the excited Tony turned to Major D -- , who with Mr. G -__ had been dining with us, and said, ' Well den, Massa Charlie, when yours ?' I told him finally it was Miss Sarah's birthday as well as mine. On hearing this he turned to the people, say- ing, 'Children, hear de'y (hear do you), dis Miss Sarah's birthday too. You must shout so loud Miss Sarah hear you all de way to de North !' At which off they went again, harder than ever. Dear old Uncle John came up to me, and taking my hands in his, said, 'God bless you, missus, my dear missus.' My father, who was standing near, put his arm round the old man's shoulders, and said, ' You have seen five generations of us now, John, haven't you ?' ' Yes, massa,' said John, ' Miss Sarah's little boy be de fifth ; bless de Lord.' Both Major D- and Mr. G- spoke of this afterwards, saying 'How fond your father is of the people.' ' Yes,' said I, ' this is a relation-
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ship you Northern people can't understand, and will soon destroy.'
I remained on St. Simon's Island this summer until the end of July, enjoying every moment of my time. The climate was perfect, and I had a delightful Southern-bred mare, on which I used to take long rides every day. My father had seen her running about the streets of Darien, and thought her so hand- some he had bought her from the man who professed to own her. She was afterwards claimed by a gentleman from Virginia, who said she was a sister of Planet's, and had been raised on his brother's plantation. When the war ended he had gone to Texas, leaving her with a friend out of whose stable she had been stolen by a deserter from the 12th Maine Regiment, who sold her to the man from whom my father bought her. The story, which was proved to be quite true, nearly cost me my mare, who was the dearest and most intelligent horse I ever had, and who grew to know me so well that she would follow me
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A FRESH START.
about like a dog, and come from the furthest end of her pasture when she heard my voice, but fortunately the owner at last agreed to a compromise, and I kept my beauty.
Twice a week I rode nine miles to Frederika, our post town, to get and take our letters, and often, with a little bundle of clothes strapped on behind my saddle, I rode down twelve miles to the south end of the island, and spent the night with my dear friends the K-'s, returning the next morning before the heat of the day. There was a good shell road the whole twelve miles, and six of it at least ran through a beautiful wood of pines and live oak, with an undergrowth of the pictu- resque dwarf palmetto and sweet-smelling bay. In many places the trees met overhead, through which the sun broke in showers of gold, lighting up the red trunks of the pines and soft green underneath, while the grey moss floated silently overhead like a gossamer veil, covering the whole. I never met a human being, nor heard a sound save the notes of
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the different birds, and the soft murmur of the wind through the tall pines, which came to me laden with their fragrant aroma, mingled with the sweet salt breeze from the sea.
I have often thought since, that it was really hardly safe for me to ride about alone, or indeed live alone, as I did half the week ; but I believe there was less danger in doing so then, than there would be now. The serpent had not entered into my paradise.
One day I went on a deer hunt with some of the gentlemen, quite as much in hopes of getting some venison as of seeing any real sport. My diet of ham, eggs, fish, rice, hominy, to which latterly, endless water- melons had been added, had become almost intolerable to me, and I absolutely longed for animal food. The morning was perfect and I was very much excited, although I did not see any deer. They shot one, however, and generously gave me half. We were to have gone again, but the weather got warm and the rattlesnakes came out, so it was not safe.
A FRESH START. 65
My neighbours the H -- 's were great sportsmen, and had before the war a famous pack of hounds, of which a story is told that, after chasing a deer all one day and across two rivers, the gentlemen returned home worn out, and without either deer or hounds. After waiting for two weeks for the return of the dogs, they went out to look for them, and on a neighbouring island found the skeletons of their hounds, in a circle round the skeleton of a deer. Fortunately, one or two of this breed had been left behind, and they were still hunting with them, and after our first hunt often sent me presents of venison, which were most acceptable.
But while my summer was gliding away in such peace and happiness, things outside were growing more and more disturbed, and my father from time to time brought me news of political disturbances, and a general grow- ing restlessness among the negroes, which he feared would end in great trouble and destroy their usefulness as labourers. Our properties
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in such a case would have become worthless. White labour could be used on these sea islands, but never on the rice fields, which if we lost our negro labourers would have to be abandoned. A letter written at that time shows how different reports reached and affected us then, and also the condition our part of the South was in, the truth of which never has been known.
St. Simon's Island : June 23, 1867.
Dearest S-, We are, I am afraid, going to have terrible trouble by-and-by with the negroes, and I see nothing but gloomy prospects for us ahead. The unlimited power that the war has put into the hands of the present Government at Washington seems to have turned the heads of the party now in office, and they don't know where to stop. The whole South is settled and quiet, and the people too ruined and crushed to do any- thing against the Government, even if they felt so inclined, and all are returning to their
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former peaceful pursuits, trying to rebuild their fortunes, and thinking of nothing else. Yet the treatment we receive from the Govern- ment becomes more and more severe every day, the last act being to divide the whole South into five military districts, putting each under the command of a United States General, doing away with all civil courts and law. Even D-, who you know is a Northern republican, says it is most unjustifi- able, not being in any way authorised by the existing state of things, which he confesses he finds very different from what he expected before he came. If they would frankly say they intend to keep us down, it would be fairer than making a pretence of readmitting us to equal rights, and then trumping up stories of violence to give a show of justice to treating us as the conquered foes of the most despotic Government on earth, and by exciting the negroes to every kind of insolent lawlessness, to goad the people into acts of rebellion and resistance.
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The other day in Charleston, which is under the command of that respectable creature General S-, they had a fire- men's parade, and took the occasion to hoist a United States flag, to which this modern Gesler insisted on everyone raising his cap as he passed underneath. And by a hundred other such petty tyrannies are the people, bruised and sore, being roused to despera- tion ; and had this been done directly after the war it would have been bad enough, but it was done the other day, three years after the close of the war.
The true reason is the desire and inten- tion of the Government to control the elections of the South, which under the constitution of the country they could not legally do. So they have determined to make an excuse for set- ting aside the laws, and in order to accomplish this more fully, each commander in his separate district has issued an order declaring that unless a man can take an oath that he had not voluntarily borne arms against the
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United States Government, nor in any way aided or abetted the rebellion, he cannot vote. This simply disqualifies every white man at the South from voting, disfranchising the whole white population, while the negroes are allowed to vote en masse.
This is particularly unjust, as the question of negro voting was introduced and passed in Congress as an amendment to the constitu- tion, but in order to become a law a majority of two-thirds of the State Legislatures must ratify it, and so to them it was submitted, and rejected by all the Northern States with two exceptions, where the number of negro voters would be so small as to be harmless. Our Legislatures are not allowed to meet, but this law, which the North has rejected, is to be forced upon us, whose very heart it pierces and prosperity it kills. Meanwhile, in order to prepare the negroes to vote properly, stump speakers from the North are going all through the South, holding political meetings for the negroes, saying things like this to them : ' My
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