USA > North Carolina > Chowan County > Economic and social history of Chowan County, North Carolina, 1880-1915 > Part 7
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Seines on the river were from 600 to 1800 yards long, while those on the sound ranged from 2300 to 2500 yards in length.1 This was the seine from staff to staff, in other words, the netting. In addition to this, the rope on the sea end was about as long as the seine itself, and that on the land end something like half its length. Thus, count- ing both the seine proper and the additional rope, the larger sound seines were from three to four miles long.
Shooting the Seine .- The rope and seine as they were unwound from the windlasses were piled up on the after- decks of two 2 bateaux, or flat boats, which were then either rowed or steamed out together to the center-bush (about a mile and a quarter from shore at the big fisheries ). Here they separated, the "land-end " boat making a sort of semi-circle back to the beach, paying off first the seine and then the rope, while the " sea-end " boat either continued its course for some distance, then turned parallel to the shore, or else at once turned parallel to the shore, casting off its seine as it went. When the seine was all off and nothing remained but the extra rope, the boat headed for the beach. This operation was known as " shooting the seine."
On the river the " land end " was the end upstream, and on the sound, the end towards the river. The fish in
1 For the location and size of the big seines, cf. table 15, p. 281.
2 The small hand seines used only one boat; two were used for the big seines in order to save time in shooting.
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the river were supposed to be running upstream, and those in the sound to be making for the fresh water of the river, hence the reason for shooting the seine in the shape described-the open sea-end let the fish in, while the closed land-end headed them off.
SEINE-CREWS
Size and Character .- To man each of the big sound fisheries properly, some fifty men, twenty women (these latter were the cooks and cutters), and fifteen mules (for those pulled in by horse power) were needed. The smaller seines required help in proportion.1 On the sound the whole force, except the managers, and sometimes one or two others, was colored. On the river, in addition to the managers and the crew captains occasionally a few others of the force were white. Sometimes white women cut on the river.
Severity of the Work and Coarseness of the Fare .- When the seines put in at the beginning of the season they never stopped, except on Sundays 2 and in case of a severe storm or some mishap, till the season closed. Notwithstanding this continuous operation, the positions of manager and of shore-engineer (in the case of steam-power seines) were the only positions for which double shifts were provided. Eating, sleeping, and resting took place when there was nothing else to do. Each person had his special work which had to be done at a certain time during the course of each haul. When this was done he was at liberty till this point in the next haul came around. For instance, the cutters and "shelter " men (those who helped at such work as
1 For a detailed statement of the labor required cf. table 13, p. 276.
2 Previous to the Civil War the big seines were fished Sundays as well as week-days. After the war there was no fishing from Saturday mid- night till Sunday midnight.
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washing, counting and salting) had from the time one haul was cleaned up till the next was landed. When there was a big run of fish on, they got very little time off. Occasion- ally, when tremendously heavy hauls came in, the seine would have to stop, and everybody lend a hand in cleaning up. All the leisure time the seine-haulers (those who had to do with the shooting and landing of the seine) had was from one to two and a half hours between the shooting of the seine and the coming ashore of the staff. Since there were only from three to six hauls (the number depending upon the size of the seine, weather conditions, and whether horse power or steam power was used) every twenty-four hours, it is readily seen that the spare time that they had was not sufficient to become any great burden to them.
Though the work was hard, necessitating much exposure, and at times calling for continuous application for several hours in succession,1 and though the fare was rough-prin- cipally cheap whiskey, yeopon tea, corn-bread, fish, and molasses, with meat and flour only once or twice a week- nevertheless, seining seemed to have a peculiar fascination for the men and women who followed it.
Whiskey .- Whiskey was considered an absolute essential on every seine beach, both by laborers and proprietors. 'A man would just as soon have thought of starting up his seine without cooks as without liquor. It was thought to
1 Previous to the war the fishing labor was largely recruited from among the free colored population of Chowan and the adjoining counties. The slaves liked to fish, but their owners, for the most part, refused to allow them to work on the fishing beaches because of the great exposure to which they were subjected. I have it from an old fisherman that previous to the war the men had neither oil clothes nor rubber boots. They even cut open the toes of their shoes so that the water could run out more quickly. Certain men had to stand in water up to their hips for an hour or so each haul. In later times these men wore either hip or waist boots, and so were protected.
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protect one from taking cold. One former seine-proprietor said to me in all seriousness, "This was night and day work, and they [the laborers] had to have some stimulants." I have it from old seine-owners that it was the cheapest whiskey they could buy. It was dealt out differently at the different beaches, but the seine-haulers (they were the men most exposed) received a rather generous supply every- where. They were usually given a gill at every haul,1 while the shelter hands were given a gill two or three times a day, the women coming in for a " nip " on special occasions, for instance, when there were extra long hours on account of a big run of fish.
FISH-CATCH
Quantity .- Seine-owners aimed to "put in" (begin fish- ing) as soon as they thought they would be able to make bare running expenses. For the first ten or twenty days the catch was light, but during the height of the season the quantity was at times so great as to be almost incredible. I am informed by old river seine-haulers and proprietors that single hauls of a hundred thousand herring, besides the other fish, have been made on the Chowan river. The largest haul made at one beach on the sound during 28 years' operation (1879-1907) counted out 110,000 herring, 1200 shad, and 500 pounds of rock.2 The largest haul at an- other sound fishery from 1890 to 1902 comprised 132,000; herring and 720 shad, besides some rock and " offal fish " (such as perch, gars, and suckers).3 The average annual
1 One old colored man who hauled seine in slavery days, told me that before the Civil War the seine-haulers received three gills every haul-one when they started out to shoot the seine, one when they came ashore, and one when the staff came in. Liquor in those days was quite cheap, selling around ten cents a quart.
2 Information furnished by the proprietor from his records.
3 Information furnished by the proprietor.
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herring catch per plant around 1880 was about 1,750,000 for the steam-power sound seines, 1,500,000 for the horse- power sound seines, and 1,000,000 for the horse-power river seines. The average annual herring catch for all apparatus in the county was in the neighborhood of 1,000,000.1
Variety and Disposition .- From the standpoint of bulk, the fish caught were chiefly herring. This was also true of their value on the river, but on the sound the "iced fish" 2 (principally shad and rock, though a few perch, and in the early part of the season, a few herring) were nearly equal in value to the herring,3 which were either sold fresh on the beach to the farmers, or corned and shipped. The river fishermen caught comparatively few "shipping fish " (fish shipped iced), though their herring catch was greater in proportion to their investment than was that of the sound fishermen.
The great majority of the people who bought their herring on the beach fresh, were from ten to twenty miles nearer the river fishermen than the sound fishermen, hence the former sold a much larger proportion of their herring with- out having to do anything to them, except cut, wash, and count them, than did the latter. As a rule the river men did not make preparations for salting, packing and storing, as the sound men did. In fact, many made little or none, and so were compelled to sell their fish as soon as they were caught, if they were catching more than a very few. These
1 These figures are all estimates. For the basis upon which they are made, cf. note to table 14, p. 279.
2 The term for all fish iced and shipped fresh. -
5 The proprietor of one of the largest seines pulled on the sound informs me that his records show the average annual value ratio of iced fish to herring caught on his beach from 1880 to 1885 to have been about six to seven.
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conditions made river prices far less stable than sound prices. When a big run of herring was on hand-some- times when it was merely expected-the river fishermen would drop their prices in order to induce the farmers to come down for their annual supply. Knowing this, many farmers waited for these low prices, and for this reason sometimes missed getting any fish at all.
Value .- On the sound, herring rarely sold below three dollars a thousand, but on the river they went to two dol- lars nearly every season, and frequently to one dollar. The low prices never held long, however, for as soon as the big run was over (usually in a day or two, at most) the price would go back to about three dollars, which may be taken as the ruling mid-season price for seine herring. At that time the beach value of the annual herring catch (21,- 000,000) was in the neighborhood of $71,000, and that of the iced-fish $67,000, making a grand total of $138,000 for the fish-catch per year.1
1 For the basis of the estimated price per thousand of herring caught by the various kinds of tackle, and for the estimated total beach value, cf. note to table 14, p. 280.
CHAPTER VII
FISHING IN 1915
FASCINATION OF SEINING
There was always something exciting and peculiarly fascinating about the landing of a seine to which few persons ever became indifferent, no matter how often they witnessed the scene. It was a sight which never seemed to pall. Even the fish-hands seldom grew weary of watching a haul land. They might be sleepy and worn-out, but just before the seine was beached they almost invariably became wide awake and more or less excited. Somehow the seine engendered for itself in the hearts of the people a kind of sentimental attach- ment, and so at its passing many experienced the same poignant regret that others have felt at the passing of the buffalo, the blanket Indian, and pioneer life in gen- eral. But like so many other implements and processes which have had to give way to more efficient devices and methods, the seine was forced to succumb to its economic superior-the pound net.
COMING OF POUND-NETS
When pound-nets were first introduced (1869), the seine owners fought them-even tried to have a law passed to prevent their use. The few people who owned the seine beaches had heretofore, so far as commercial fishing went, practically owned the sound and river, altho nominally they were free for all to fish in. These beach
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owners saw in the pound-net an instrument that was to take away from them their long-enjoyed monopoly, and, as is usually the case with "vested interests" when threatened, they "raised a howl." But it was of no avail. Because of the tremendous advantages possessed by pound-nets over seines,' the former multiplied at such a rate that within a very few years the seine owners noticed a decided falling-off in their catch. One by one they were forced to quit seining, since they did not care to operate their plants at a loss. By 1900 the annual average catch of the individual seines still running was only a trifle more than half of what it was around 1880. The catch of shad had dropped especially low. After 1902 there was operated in the county only one seine ; this continued up to and including the season of 1907. Since then all commercial fishing has been done with pound- and gill-nets, the latter for shad only.
RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN FISHING
Other than the displacing of seines by nets, but few changes have been made in the fishing industry since 1880. Shad gill-nets are much longer now than then, and are anchored instead of staked. As regards pound- nets, some now use the double- instead of the single- heart, but many claim that there is little or no advantage to be gained by this innovation, and continue to use the single-heart. The one big change-the one chief step forward-has been the substitution of gasoline- for sail- boats.
The advantages of the gas-boat in pound-net 2 fishing over the sailboat are several. In the first place, three
1 Cf. supra, pp. 92, 93.
2 Some of the gill-net men also use gas-boats as tenders.
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men (they usually go three to a boat) can fish more than twice as many nets when using gas as when using sail, and what is more, with vastly greater ease. Second, they can fish at a far greater distance from their land- ing place, which allows fishermen to try their fortunes over a much wider area than formerly. Third, when a boat goes out, the time of its return can be figured with a reasonable degree of certainty, while in the days of the sailboat, the time of the return was rather a matter of conjecture. Fourth, one can fish in rougher weather with gas than with sail. Fifth, it is now possible to fish the nets fairly regularly, and usually as often as nec- essary, while in former days, if a big run of fish was accompanied by adverse weather conditions for sailing, many fish died before they were ever taken from the nets. Finally, fish are no longer damaged while enroute from the net to the beach, which in the days of sailboats was a common occurrence. Sometimes a boat . would get becalmed, and the fish would be seriously injured before they could be got ashore. Because of the liability of the fish to damage, both in the net and while enroute to the beach, pound-net herring usually sold for fifty cents a thousand less than seine herring.1 Under the present arrangements, pound-net fish should be as good as seine fish.
FISH-CATCH AND VALUE
For the five-year period 1909-1914, the herring catch averaged about 20,000 per pound-net annually. In 1914 there were licensed 999 pound-nets, 633 of which were on the river and 366 on the sound. Counting 20,000 to the net, the herring catch that season was 19,980,000 -in round numbers twenty million. And the beach
1 Cf. footnote to table 14, p. 280.
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value, reckoning river herring and sound herring at $3.00 and $3.50 per 1000, respectively, was $63,600. The average annual value of iced fish per pound-net for the same five-year period was about twelve dollars for those on the sound and fifty dollars for those on the river. On this basis the value of the iced fish caught by the pound- nets in 1914 was $25,896. The estimated value of the gill-net catch was $12,040, making a grand total of $101,536 for the county's entire catch of fish in 1914."
RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF FISHING IN 1880 AND 1914
Capital Invested .- According to my estimates, the capital invested in fishing in 1880 was not only more than five times as great as it was in 1914,2 in proportion to the total property value of the county, but it was also greater in absolute amount. The catch, too, was greater in the first period than in the second, both in amount and value. Asmay be seen by referring to table 14, page 263, the greatest loss in value has been due to the less- ened catch of iced fish.
Fish Consumption .- The fishing industry of the county had a far greater comparative significance for the people in the eighties and nineties than is brought out by any of the facts thus far mentioned. At this time herring constituted the larger portion of the meat element in the diet of a majority of the people. Many a one had herring three times a day for days in succession, and little else besides, except bread and tea-his herring was
1 For the basis of these estimates, and for further details, cf. table 14, and footnote to same, pp. 279, 280.
2 In 1880 the capital invested was 4.14 per cent of the total taxed values of the county, while in 1914 it represented but .79 per cent of the total. Cf. supra, footnote, p. 91, and table 13, p. 276.
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either boiled in clear water or broiled ' on the coals ; his bread was made of cornmeal and water only; his tea was " black yeopon " (tea with neither milk nor sugar).
With herring at two dollars and fifty cents a thousand (the average price when the family fish were bought was not more, the higher-priced fish of the early part of the season being, for the most part, marketed outside of the county) and corn at forty cents a bushel (the customary price around housing time, in the eighties and nineties), a dollar a month would procure for a person the most usual diet of much of the population. This source of cheap food, taken in connection with the mild climate, meant that a person could exist with very little work- and not a few of the inhabitants did so.
Of the annual catch of herring in the eighties, some forty per cent-from 8,000,000 to 9,000,000-were sold fresh on the beach. The county's consumption of these, however, was probably only about 6,500,000, since some were carted off to Virginia and peddled out, some sold
1 Herring were put up in two ways-dried and pickled, corresponding to bacon and salt pork, respectively. The dried herring were either boiled in clear water and eaten just so, or after being boiled were then fried. By the first method no grease was required, and by the second, but very little.
Pickled herring that have been properly cured in the early part of the season when herring are fat, and then properly cooked, furnish a table delicacy that is seldom surpassed by any dish in its appeal to the appetite. They are at their best when split open, mealed, and fried right out of the water, after having been soaked for a few hours. To prepare them this way, however, requires a considerable amount of grease, and since grease was a rather scarce article in the vast majority of households, most of the pickled fish had to be cooked in a less expensive, even though less appetizing, manner. The greatest num- ber of them were first soaked, in order to get rid of the surplus salt, then stuck on a reed and hung out on the side of the smoke-house to dry. After they had dried for a few days they could be either fried with very little grease or else broiled, which required no grease at all.
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to farmers (who came down for them) from Nansemond County, Va., and a million or two sold to the farmers from Gates County, N. C.1 In 1914 the beach sales were from thirty to thirty-five per cent of the 20,000,000 herring caught that season-reduced to absolute num- bers, from 6,000,000 to 7,000,000. Probably about 5,000,000 of these were consumed in the county.2
Assuming that the estimates in the preceding para- graph are approximately correct, the 7900 population of 1880 consumed thirty per cent more herring than the population of 1914 (estimated on December 31 at II,8013). Per capita, the consumption was more than double in 1880 what it was in 1914. This falling off of fish in the diet is one of the many indications of the vast improvement that has been made in the economic welfare of the people. It should by no means be under- stood that fish are thought to be a poor food. The point here is that the people have become better able to vary their bill of fare and eat fish only when their appe- tite calls for it.
1 Some also were sold to carts from the adjoining county of Perqui- mans, but in all probability Perquimans sold fully as many (perhaps more) fish to Chowan as she bought of her.
2 The estimates of this paragraph are based on numerous interviews with both the sellers and the consumers of fish, and upon my own knowl- edge of general conditions. Many families put up for their own use from eight to twelve hundred herring for each of its members. Besides those for their own use, not a few of the more substantial families put up some to sell, particularly to their hired hands and their tenants.
3 The estimated population for December 31, 1914 was obtained as follows: To the population (II,303) on April 15, 1910, was added the product of the average monthly increase (8,819) during the previous decade by the total number of months (56.6) between April 15, 1910 and December 31, 1914. This is not a very exact method of calculating the population at intercensus periods, but sufficiently so for the present purpose.
CHAPTER VIII
MANUFACTURING IN THE EIGHTIES
TYPE OF MANUFACTURING
THERE was no sort of establishment in the county in 1880 that could be termed a factory in the modern sense of the term. Manufacturing there was, and in consider- able quantities, but it was all of the domestic or hand variety. For certain work, such as making brick, sawing, and ginning, it was necessary for two or more people to co-operate, and such industries as milling and ginning called for a few hundred dollars capital outlay for plant construction. Most manufacturing, however, was by single individuals, laboring separately, and with few and simple tools of small value. The manufactured articles were practically all destined for home consumption, and largely for the consumption of the families of those di- rectly concerned in their production.
ARTICLES PRODUCED
At this time the people of Chowan were rather near neighborhood, and to a large extent family, self-suffici- ency.' Aside from iron, salt, nails, a little cutlery and
1 In slavery days the larger owners lived on or near the sound and the river, where was much of the best land as well as the best opportunity for marketing its products. After the invention of the cotton gin (1792) the big slave owners began turning their attention to the raising of cotton. As the production of cotton increased, that of other crops fell off, as did frequently also the domestic manufactures, hence many of the supplies formerly produced right on the plantation, were now bought. After the war, the freedmen for the most part 107]
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tableware, window-glass, some cooking utensils (such as creepers, pots, kettles, and frying pans), thread, pins, buttons, needles, the iron parts of some farming utensils, a few books, the saws and mill-stones of water-mills, the saws, mill-stones, boilers, and engines of steam-mills, the actual gins of the ginneries, and the belting and gearing of machinery, they were producing some, and in a major- ity of instances all, of everything the great mass of the people consumed. While they manufactured no cook- stoves, pianos, sewing machines, clocks, or watches, such luxuries as these were enjoyed by but few.'
They tanned some of their leather, made some of their shoes, hats, and caps, knit most of their socks, either knit, wove, or made from shirting many of their suspen- ders, spun and wove some of their cloth, and made practically all of the wearing apparel (except shoes) for the women and children and most of that for the men (except shoes, hats and the Sunday suits of a few). They grew the feathers for their beds, and the corn shucks, wheat straw, and cotton for their mattresses-all of which they put together themselves. They turned many of their bedsteads and chairs, and all of the covering they slept under was of their own make. Most of their kitchen furniture and utensils, such as tables, benches, cupboards, bread-trays, griddles, sieves, and brooms were home-made. They coopered most of their tubs and many of their barrels, casks, wash-basins, water-buckets,
remained on the farms of their former owners, either as tenants or laborers, and continued raising cotton and buying most of their supplies, though part of these came off their landlords' own plantations. These two classes-the owners of big farms and the negroes who worked them-by no means approached the degree of family self-sufficiency as did the majority of the white and colored families living in the sections where there had been the fewest slaves.
1 Cf. infra, ch. xx.
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and dinner pails. They improvised by far the greater number of their own dippers, occasionally from conch shells, more frequently from cocoanut hulls, but largely from the common gourd, which was cut, scraped, boiled, scrubbed, and sunned to remove the "gourdy " taste and smell-said taste and smell, however, in spite of all these efforts, remaining to a more or less degree just as long as there was a piece of the gourd. All of their cradles and coffins, and most of their tombstones were made at home. All of their looms, spinning-wheels, cart-wheels, cart-saddles, carts, ox yokes, back bands, and tugs, most of their cotton-planters, and traces, and many of their horse collars and hames, originated within their own bounds. They made their rakes, helved their hoes and axes, and made and stocked some of their plows. They built their own boats and made their own seines, nets and fishing tackle in general. They salted down their own fish, butchered and baconed their own meat,' ren- dered their own lard, stuffed their own sausage, and boiled most of their own soap. Their tea (yeopon) was home-cured as well as home-grown, their corn-meal and much of their wheat-flour was home-grown, and their hominy was home-beaten. They brewed their own beers, pressed their own ciders and wines, and distilled their own liquors. They burned all their brick, tar, and coal (charcoal), rived all their boards and pales, rived and drew all of their shingles, hewed all of their sills and sleepers, many of their joists, laths and rafters, and much of their studding. Most of their doors were home- made, and not a few of them were hung on hinges of their own make and secured by locks of the same hum-
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