USA > Georgia > Ten years on a Georgia plantation since the war > Part 9
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Our own people seemed pretty well settled, and Major D- said gave but little trouble, the greatest improvement being in their acceptance of their wages every Saturday night without the endless disputes and arguments in which they used formerly to indulge whenever they were paid. But there were still a great many idle worthless ones hanging about Darien, and when we arrived the wharf was crowded with as dirty and demoralised a looking lot of negroes as I ever saw, and these gave the town a bad name.
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Our Englishmen we found settled in the old hospital building which I had assigned to them, and which had been unoccupied since the school had been broken up, with the exception of one room which the people still used as their church. Besides this there were three others, about twenty feet square, nicely ceiled and plastered, into which I had directed the Englishmen should be put, and in one of these we found them all, eight men sleeping, eating, and living in the same room, from preference. They had not made the least effort to make themselves decently comfortable, and were lying upon the floor like dogs, although Major D- had advised them to put up some bedsteads, offering the carpenter of the party lumber for the purpose, and an old negro woman to make them some straw mattresses, giving them a week to get things straight before they began their work. Two of them fell ill soon after, and then we insisted upon their dividing, half the number using one sleeping room and the rest the
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other, keeping the third for a general living room, kitchen, &c. At first they seemed in good spirits and well satisfied, but nothing can describe their helplessness and want of adaptability to the new and different circum- stances in which they found themselves. They were like so many troublesome chil- dren, and bothered me extremely by coming to the house the whole time to ask for some- thing or other, until at last, one Saturday evening when they came to know if I would let them have a little coffee for Sunday, as they had forgotten to buy any, the shop being only half a mile distant across the river, I flatly refused, and said they must learn to take care of themselves. One was afterwards very ill, and I really thought he would die from want of heart, as from the first moment he was taken ill he made up his mind he should not recover, and I had to nurse him like a baby, giving him his medicine and food with my own hands, and finally when he was really well, only weak,
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we had to insist upon his getting up and trying to move about a little, or I think he would have spent the rest of his life in bed.
To make a long story short, they soon began to get troublesome and discontented, were constantly drunk, and shirked their work so abominably, that our negro foreman Sey begged that they might not be allowed to work in the same fields with his negroes, to whom they set so bad an example, by leaving before their day's work was finished, that they demoralised his gang completely, and made them grumble at being obliged to go on with their work after the ' white men' had left. So when the end of their second year came we were most thankful to pay their way back to England and get rid of them. All left except one, who after starting rather badly settled down and became a useful hard-working man, and is still with us as head ploughman, in which capacity he works for about eight months of the year, spending the other three or four on our
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deserted cotton place, as the unhealthiness of the rice plantation prevents his remaining there during the summer months. During this time he plants a good vegetable garden for himself, spends most of his time fishing, and is taken care of by an old negro woman, who he assured my husband worked harder and was worth more than any white woman he had ever seen. But I am afraid his experience had been unfortunate, for he was the only married man in the party we brought . out, and his being the only one who did not wish to return made us suspect domestic troubles might have had something to do with his willingness to stay.
We had for several years employed a gang of Irish labourers to do the banking and ditching on the Island, and although we made no agreement with them about return- ing in the spring when we dismissed them, they came down each succeeding autumn, taking the risk of either being engaged again by us or by some of our neighbours, and
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hitherto we had always been ready to do so. But the winter we first had our Englishmen we decided not to have the additional heavy expense of the Irishmen, and so told them we did not want them. The result was that they were very indignant with the English- men, whom they regarded as usurpers and interlopers, and whose heads they threatened to break in consequence.
Major D -- , half in fun, said to them, ' Why, you shouldn't hate them ; you all come from the same country.' To which Pat indig- nantly replied, ' The same country, is it ? Ah, thin, jist you put them in the ditch along wid us, and ye'll soon see if it's the same country we come from.' A test they were quite safe in proposing, for the Englishmen certainly could not hold a spade to them, and after trying the latter in the ditch we were glad enough to engage our Irishmen again, which quite satisfied them, so that after that they got on very well with their 'fellow country- men,' only occasionally indulging in a little
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Irish wit at their expense. They certainly were a very different lot of men, and while the Englishmen were endless in their com- plaints, wants, and need of assistance, the Irishmen turned into a big barn at the up- per end of the plantation, got an old negro woman to cook for them, worked well and faithfully, were perfectly satisfied, and with the exception of occasionally meeting them going home from their work of an evening when I was walking, I never should have known they were on the place.
I must record one act to their honour, for which I shall ever feel grateful. Two years after the one of which I am now writing I was very ill on the plantation, and the white woman I had taken from the North as cook was lying dangerously ill at the same time, so that the management and direction of every- thing fell upon my nurse, an excellent Scotch- woman, who found some difficulty in pro- viding for all the various wants of such a sick household. The Irishmen hearing her say
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one day that she did not know where she should get anything that I could eat, brought her down some game they had shot for themselves, and, being told that I liked it, every Monday morning regularly, for the rest of the winter, sent me in either hares, snipe, or ducks by one of the servants, without even waiting to be thanked, the game they shot being what they themselves depended upon for helping out their scanty larder.
I felt a little anxious at first about the effect such a new life and strange surround- ings might have upon my husband, for although he had seen it before, it was a very different matter merely looking at it from a visitor's point of view, and returning to live there as owner, when all the differences between it and his life and home in England would be so apparent. However, I soon found that I need not be uneasy upon that score, as he at once became deeply interested in it, and set about learning all the details of the work and peculiarities of both place and
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people, which he mastered in a wonderfully short time, showing a quick appreciation of the faults and mistakes in the previous system of planting which he had followed since the war, and which he very soon tried on an entirely different plan. This was so success- ful that in a year the yield from the place was doubled and the whole plantation bore a different aspect, much to the astonishment of our neighbours, who could not understand how an Englishman, and English parson at that, who had never seen a rice field before in his life, should suddenly become such a good planter. The negroes, after trying what sort of stuff he was made of, became very devoted to him, and one of the old men, after informing my sister some little time afterwards how much they liked him and how much good he had done them all, wound up with 'Miss Fanny (me) made a good bargain dat time.'
My husband wrote a number of letters to England from the plantation during the time
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we remained there, which were published in a little village magazine for the amusement of the parishioners who knew him, and which I think I cannot do better than add to this account of mine, as they will show how every- thing at the South struck the fresh and unbiassed mind of a foreigner who had no traditions, no old associations, and no preju- dices, unless indeed unfavourable ones, to in- fluence him.
After having spent the summer at the North, we again returned to the plantation in November, taking with us this time an addi- tion to the family in the shape of a little three- months-old baby, who was received most warmly by the negroes, and christened at once 'Little Missus,' many of them telling me, with grins of delight, how they remem- bered me 'just so big.' I very soon found that the arrival of 'young missus' had advanced me to the questionable position of ' old missus,' to which however I soon became reconciled when I found how tenderly 'Little
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Missus' was treated by all her devoted sub- jects. Oddly enough, the black faces never seemed to frighten her, and from the first she willingly went to the sable arms stretched out to take her. It was a pretty sight to see the black nurse, with her shining ebony face, surmounted by her bright-coloured turban, holding the little delicate white figure up among the branches of the orange trees to · let her catch the golden fruit in her tiny hands ; and the house was kept supplied almost the whole winter with eggs and chickens, brought as presents to ‘Little Missus.'
Another summer at the North and back again to the South, from whence nothing but good reports had reached us of both harvest and people. Indeed our troubles of all sorts seemed to be at an end, at least such as arose from 'reconstruction.' It came in another shape, however, and in January 1876 I was taken very ill, and for five days lay at the point of death, during which time the anxiety
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and affection shown by my negroes was most profound, all work stopped, and the house was besieged day and night by anxious inquirers. My negro nurse lay on the floor outside my door all night, and the morning I was pro- nounced out of danger she rushed out, and throwing up her arms, exclaimed, 'My missus'll get well ; my missus'll get well ! I don't care what happens to me now.' And when at last I was able to get about once more, the expressions of thankfulness that greeted me on all sides were most touching. One woman, meeting me on the bank, flung herself full length on the ground, and catching me round the knees, exclaimed, ' Oh, tank de Lord, he spared my missus.' A man to whom something was owing for some chickens he had furnished to the house during my ill- ness refused to take any money for them, saying when I wished to pay him, 'No, dey tell me de chickens was for my missus, and I'se so glad she's got well I don't want no money for dem.' My dear people !
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Our poor old housekeeper, less fortunate than myself, did not recover, but died just as I was getting better, and in looking over her letters after her death, in order to find out where her friends lived, so as to let them know of her death, I found to my astonish- ment that she had been in terror of the negroes from the first, and had a perfect horror of them. Being so fond of them my- self, and feeling such entire confidence in them as not even to lock the doors of the house at night, it never occurred to me that perhaps a New England woman, who had never seen more than half-a-dozen negroes together in her life, might be frightened at finding herself surrounded by two or three hundred, and it was only after her death that I found from the letters written to her by different friends at the North, in answer to hers, what her state of mind had been. There were such expressions as these : 'I don't wonder you are frightened and think you hear stealthy steps going about the house at
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night.' ' How horrible to be on the Island with all those dreadful blacks.' 'The idea of there being only you three white people on the Island with two hundred blacks !' &c. She had apparently forgotten, in making her statement, the eight Irish and six English labourers who were living on the Island, but still the negroes certainly did greatly out- number the whites, and could easily have murdered us all had they been so inclined. But there was not the least danger then, whatever there might have been the first year or two after the war, and even at that time I never felt afraid, for had there been a general negro insurrection, although my own negroes would of course have joined it, there were at least a dozen, I am sure, who would have warned me to leave the place in time.
My sister paid me a visit this winter-her first to the South since the war, except in 1867, when she spent a month with us, but on St. Simon's Island, where she saw little or nothing of the negroes-and she was greatly
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struck with their whole condition and demeanour, in which she said she could not perceive that freedom had made any differ- ence. In answer to this I could only say that if she had been at the South the first three years after the war, she would have seen a great change in their deportment, but that since that they had gradually been coming back to their senses and their manners.'
This winter we had the pleasure of seeing a very nice church started in Darien for the negroes. For three years my husband had been holding services for them regularly on the Island in a large unoccupied room which we had fitted as a chapel ; but we found this hardly large enough to accommodate out- siders, and as many wished to attend who were not our own people, we thought Darien the best place for the church. While it was being built, service was held in a large barn or warehouse, which was kindly lent for the purpose by a coloured man of consider-
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able property and good standing in the com- munity, who although a staunch supporter of the Presbyterian Church himself, was liberal-minded enough to lend a helping hand to his brethren of a different persuasion.
The following extract from the report of our Bishop came to me somewhat later :-
April 9 .- Held evening service, assisted by the Rev. J. W. Leigh, of England, and the Rev. Dr. Clute. Confirmed twenty-one coloured persons, and addressed the candi- dates in St. Philip's Mission Chapel, Butler's Island. I desire publicly to express my thanks to the Rev. Mr. Leigh, for the faith- ful and efficient service he has rendered the Church in Georgia during his stay in America. He has trained the coloured people on Butler's Island in the doctrines, and has brought to bear upon them the elevating influence, of the Church, with a thoroughness and kindness which must, under God, be fraught with good to those poor people who for so many years
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have been the victims of so-called religious ex- citements and fancied religious experiences.
April 11 .- Held morning service, assisted by the Rev. Dr. Clute. Preached, and con- firmed six in St. Andrew's, Darien. In the afternoon I held service for coloured people in Darien, assisted by the Rev. Dr. Clute, who presented seven coloured candidates for confirmation, and the Rev. Mr. Leigh, who presented one. After confirmation I ad- dressed the candidates. In the evening I held service in the Methodist Church, assisted by the same brethren. Preached, and confirmed three coloured persons in Darien. The Church is taking a strong hold upon the coloured people in Darien, as also upon Butler's Island. The Rev. Dr. Clute had twenty-eight candidates whom he expected to present, but they were prevented from coming by a storm.
Also in the appendix is added the follow- ing paragraph :-
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The Rev. the Hon. J. W. Leigh, M.A., reports from Butler's Island that he has had fourteen baptisms, twenty-two candidates con- firmed, twenty-nine communicants, and three marriages. It is also announced that the frame of the Chapel (St. Athanasius) for the coloured mission in Darien has been erected, and will be enclosed as soon as money can be obtained for the expense. The confirmed, as well as many candidates who were absent from the rite because of a rain-storm and change of the day of appointment, have had no opportunity to communicate.
This winter was destined to be the last I was to spend at the South, as my husband had made up his mind finally to return to his own country to live. Before leaving I had broken up my little plantation establishment, selling the principal part of the furniture, carpets, and so forth, and I consider it a sig- nificant proof of the well-to-do condition of the negroes, that the best and most expensive
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things were bought and paid for on the spot by negroes. The drawing-room carpet, a handsome Brussels one, was bought by a rich coloured man in Darien, the owner of a large timber mill there, a man universally respected by everyone, and, if I am not mistaken, who has for years held an official position of some importance in Darien. He was not a slave before the war, but owned slaves him- self.
The following November my husband returned to the plantation for a couple of months alone, in order to settle up everything finally, before we sailed in January for Eng- land. This was the winter of the Presidential election, when our part of the country was, like every other section, violently agitated and excited by politics. But with us, while of course everyone did the best he could for his party, there was not the least ill-feeling between the blacks and the whites, and the election passed off without any trouble of any sort, which is a noteworthy fact in itself,
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as our county is one of the two in Georgia where the negroes outnumber the whites ten to one, and in more than one instance a negro was elected to office by the white democratic votes.
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CHAPTER VIII.
1877, 1878, 1879.
OVER THE WATER.
AND now I have come to these last three years of my history, which are so much the same, and marked by so few incidents, that a few pages will suffice for them.
In the autumn of 1877, not a year after our return to England, our old friend and agent Major D- died, and in many ways his loss was an irreparable one to us, but nothing showed the changed and improved condition of the negroes more than the fact that his death did not in the least unsettle them, and that the work went steadily on just the same. A few years before, a sort of
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panic would have seized them, and the idea taken possession of them that a new man would not pay them, or would work them too hard, or make new rules, &c. &c., and it would have been months before we got them quieted and settled down again. But now, although Major D -- was much liked and respected by them, as indeed he was by the whole community, Northern man though he was, and Northern soldier though he had been, they knew that whoever was put in his place would carry out the old rules, and pay them their wages as regularly as before.
In September of the year 1878 a terrible storm visited the Southern coast. The hur- ricane swept over the Island just in the middle of the harvest, and quite half the crop was entirely destroyed, and the rest injured. What was saved was only rescued by the most energetic and laborious efforts on the part of the negroes, who did their utmost. Day after day they did almost double their usual task, several times working right
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through the night, and twice all Sunday ; cheerfully and willingly, not as men who were working for wages, but as men whose heart was in their work, and who felt their interests to be the same as their employer's.
Later on in the same year my husband returned to the United States and revisited the property, but finding everything working well and satisfactorily, only remained about six weeks.
Our present manager is the son of a former neighbour of ours, whom the negroes have known from childhood, and to whose control they willingly submit. In engaging a person to manage such a property two things are necessary : first, that he should be a Southern man, because no one not brought up with the negroes can understand their peculiarities, and a Northern man, with every desire to be just and kind, invariably fails from not understanding their character. Even Major D- felt this, although he had been so long among them, and latterly never
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would take charge of any but the financial part of the business. And secondly, the person put over them must be a gentleman born and bred, for they have the most comical contempt for anyone they do not consider ' quite the thing,' and they perceive instinctively the difference. This I suppose is a remnant of slave times, when there were the masters, the slaves, and the poor white class, regarded with utter contempt by the negroes, who called them ' poor white trash.' To a gentleman's rule they will submit, but to no other, and it is useless to put a person holding an inferior social position over them.
The only plantations near us which are well and successfully worked, are managed either by their old masters, or gentlemen from the neighbourhood. We all pay wages either weekly or monthly, finding that the best plan now. It is far the easiest for our- selves, as well as satisfactory to the negroes, who can't think they are cheated when every- thing is paid in full every Saturday night,
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nor can they forget in that short time what days they have been absent or missed work. I do not believe they put by one penny out of their good wages, but they like to have a little money always in hand to spend, and much prefer this system of payments to a share in the crop or to being paid in a lump at the end of the year., I have tried all three plans, and do not hesitate to say this is the best. And so, with good management, good wages paid regularly, and no outside inter- ference, there need be no trouble whatever with Southern labour. But of the three I con- sider outside interference by far the worst evil Southern planters have to contend against.
The negroes are so like children, so un- reasoning and easily influenced, that they are led away by any promise that sounds fair, or inducement which is offered. And although I confidently assert that nowhere in the world are agricultural labourers in a better condi- tion, or better paid, than our negroes, and that though for twelve years they have been
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well paid, and never have known us to break our promises to them, yet I am perfectly sure that if anyone should visit Butler's Island to- morrow, absolute stranger though he might be, and promise the negroes houses, or land, or riches in Kansas or in Timbuctoo, they would leave us without a moment's hesitation, or doubt in their new friend's trustworthiness, just as my child might be tempted away from me by any stranger who promised her a new toy. Children they are in their nature and character, and children they will remain until the end of the chapter.
Oh, bruders, let us leave Dis buckra land for Hayti, Dah we be receive Grand as Lafayetty. Make a mighty show
When we land from steamship, You'll be like Monro, Me like Lewis Philip.
O dat equal sod, Who not want to go-y, Dah we feel no rod, Dah we hab no foe-y,
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Dah we lib so fine, Dah hab coach and horsey, Ebbry day we dine, We hab tree, four coursey.
No more our son cry sweep, No more he play de lackey, No more our daughters weep, 'Kase dey call dem blacky. No more dey servants be, No more dey scrub and cook-y,
But ebbry day we'll see Dem read de novel book-y.
Dah we sure to make Our daughter de fine lady, Dat dey husbands take 'Bove de common grady ; And perhaps our son He rise in glory splendour, Be like Washington, His country's brave defender.' 1
Put Kansas for Hayti, and 1879 for 1840, and haven't we exactly the same story ?
1 This delightful song was composed somewhere about 1840, at the time of one of the Haytian revolutions, when the negroes, imagining that they would have no more work to do, but all be ladies and gentlemen, took the most absurd airs, and went about calling themselves by all the different dis- tinguished names they had ever heard.
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