USA > South Carolina > A Contribution to the History of the Huguenots of South Carolina: Consisting of Pamphlets > Part 10
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school-boy, we used to run two miles to Maham's mill-pond, and on Saturday spent the whole morn- ing there in the luxurious bath, and no one ever dreamed of a luxury in the shape of a towel, beyond our ordinary handkerchiefs. The truth is, that dis- eases, fevers particularly, come from God ; to what end, we know not precisely, but a good one, we may be certain. If there were no fevers provided for us, we would be deprived of one of the means for quit- ting this world; and it is worse than useless to speculate upon the causes which, in every case, and we believe we may say, in any case, generate this disorder.
A pretty extensive observation has convinced us that we know absolutely nothing of the causes of fever. We have seen overseers living year after year in the rice fields of Cooper River, in the unin- terrupted enjoyment of perfect health. These in- stances are too common to be marked as exceptions. We have generally observed that those overseers are least sickly who are required to spend their summers on the plantation. We have known others who preserved their health until they re- sorted to the pine lands. In such cases, our ra- tionale of the cause is this : The overseer must be on the plantation late in the evening and early in the morning. If he lives on the plantation, he has no occasion to rise before his usual hour; if he re- tires to a pine land, he must abstract from sleep
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that portion of time which is occupied in going to and returning from the plantation. Now, the sum- mer nights are very short, and though one may without inconvenience dispense with a half-hour's sleep on any given occasion, yet this trifling amount tells in the aggregate, and the climate has full op- portunity to work upon the exhausted body. As a general rule, too, the overseers are generally more healthy, whether living on plantations or in pine lands, than men of the same class living on their own pine-land farms. A more generous diet en- ables them to resist more effectually the effects of the climate; and we believe that any planter who keeps a good table and enjoys it in moderation, who will not drink too much wine or other stimulating liquors, and who will not suffer his spirits to be de- pressed by the ominous croakings of his friends, may pass the summer on his plantation, if not in perfect health, at least with no visitation more fear- ful than the intermittent fever of the climate. The late Dr. Charles Rutledge spent the summer of 1800 on Accabee plantation, and his family enjoyed per- fect health. In 1839, when the yellow fever raged in Charleston, and the citadel was full of pestilence, Major Parker removed his family, in midsummer, to the Martello Towers, and they all enjoyed per- fect health there. Other cases may without much trouble be enumerated, all going to prove, not that the climate has changed, as our people so rashly
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assert, but that the city has become more healthful, and that our people have a greater fear of fever than formerly. The great danger to be apprehended is not the remittent fever, which proceeds by rapid stages to a fatal crisis, but the slow and lingering intermittent. As we have before said, it is the repe- tition of these attacks which breaks down the man. They tell fearfully, too, upon children, who have not the strength to bear up against their ravages. They get ague cakes, and smiles and laughter no longer play about their little faces, and they know nothing of the joys and sports of childhood, and their melancholy countenances prey upon your spirits as you behold their listless tawny faces ; and at last God, in his mercy, takes them to himself, and they trouble this world no more. It is the child, there- fore, who has special cause to bless the benevolence which provides the pine lands. There they feel the balmy air as it kisses their cheeks, and it seems the breath of God, inviting them to be happy, and laughter and childish glee fill the air with their hopeful and heart-reviving sounds. And let not the carping critic point to the tombstones which cluster about the cemeteries of our country, and show how many have died in childhood, and in the prime of manhood, even under the favoring influence of the pine-land air. Regard not their death. That is the debt of nature. But look to their lives. If they were happy in life, there is
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little to be regretted in their death. But we must return to Pineville.
Though seasons would occur, in which sickness and death would make their appearance in forms more appalling than usual, yet there was generally this consolation, that the rest of the country was equally the subject of the visitation. Thus, in 1817 and 1819, the village was clad in mourning, but dis- ease and death were making hurrying strides every- where else. In the meantime all the usual appliances for preserving the public health were adopted. The ponds were drained, the ditches kept open, trees en- couraged to grow, yard fires kept up every night, and when the village had entered upon its fortieth year, its inhabitants fondly hoped that it was the abode of as much health as Providence deigns award to man. It was in autumn, 1833, that the first cases of that malady occurred, which drove away the people. A gentleman-we believe it was Mr. John Ravenel-was sick. The season was un- commonly dry, and the swamps exhaled offensive odors ; his daily rides led him by one of these, and he was supposed to have been poisoned by its exha- lations. But he was not alarmingly ill. His fever appeared to intermit, and men began to inquire whether fever and ague was to be one of the diseases of the village. And those who were not connected with him by any ties of intimacy, almost, perhaps quite, forgot that he was sick, when suddenly a ru-
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mor flies through the village that he is dying. And it was even so. The insidious fever, after amusing his victim for some days, and lulling his friends into a fatal sense of security, suddenly seized him with a rigor so intense that neither the patient's strength could resist it, nor mortal skill success- fully oppose it, and before the hot fit could come on he was dead. Another case of a similar charac- ter occurred, and the people gratefully welcomed the benignant frost, which stopped the progress of the fever, and opened the doors of their prison- house. The next summer, 1834, the fever returned, and in that and the two succeeding summers it con- tinued its ravages, until the most sanguine became desponding, and the village was almost totally de- serted.
And as no cause could be assigned for the fearful visitation, so health again mysteriously returned to its ancient abode. By slow degrees the deserted houses again received their tenants. Men began to forget their former terrors, and returned, and Pine- ville is again the abode of a number of planters. The prestige of its ancient fame still remains, to give it a sort of metropolitan character over the neighboring villages of Pinopolis, Eutawville, New Hope, and others, which have sprung up, like an- cient colonies, cherishing the sacred fires from the hearth of the maternal state. It justly boasts of its delicious shades, of its clear, cool, and refreshing
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water, but it no longer claims a monopoly of health. And while other villages flourish in its neighbor- hood, and the communication with Charleston has become more easy, the sense of isolation, which once gave its people a peculiar characteristic, no longer is felt, and they have become cosmopolitan. The old times have gone, never to return, and it is to call back the memory of the first fifteen years of our life, and of the two which followed our accession to manhood, that we have made this humble attempt to depict scenes which, though perhaps faded, can never be forgotten. F. A. P.
NOTES.
NOTE A.
-
THE FRENCH HUGUENOTS.
" To gratify the lusts of power, princes have often encour- aged the emigration of their subjects, in the hope of increasing their wealth and multiplying their possessions. And individ- uals, led on by an ambitious desire to improve their personal fortunes, have abandoned the home of their fathers. But none of these motives prompted our Protestant ancestors to leave the delightful hills and valleys of their native France. They were no instruments in the hands of ambitious princes for the increase of their wealth and power. They did not seek a home in America, through mere love of adventure, or the ordinary inducements of pecuniary gain. Far nobler and higher were the motives that actuated them. They came in search of an asylum from the relentless persecution of a Catholic rule and of a cruel government. They sought a home in which they might enjoy, unmolested, the sweets of political and religious liberty. They longed to bear away their altars and their faith to a land of real freedom-a land allowing free scope to the ex- ercise of conscience in the worship of their Maker.
" The name of Huguenot is synonymous with patient endur- ance, noble fortitude, and high religious purpose. Let us then be glad that we, a portion of their descendants, are per- mitted to meet, under the blessed light of liberty and religious freedom won by them, to pay some imperfect tribute to mem- ories so justly dear, and to remember their fidelity to posterity and to God. In reverting to the period when a plain but high-
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souled, energetic people were driven, by the persecutions of the Old World, to take refuge in this uncultivated wild, we trace the origin of this community ; we tread upon the ashes of the pioneers of religion, of domestic peace, and of social virtue. To call up scenes of other times, to revive the memories of the generous dead, to hold up ancestral virtue to praise and emulation, are grateful tasks, which seldom fail to achieve last- ing and beneficial results. We look back to our fathers for lessons of wisdom and piety. We take pleasure in recalling their brave deeds and their exalted virtues. We like to fre- quent their accustomed walks and haunts. With pleasure we sit around the firesides at which they sat, and worship before the altars at which they worshipped-and who will quarrel with this just principle of our nature ? Our Huguenot ances- tors came out to this country in the complete armor of grown- up, civilized men. They had been raised under the auspices of an old and refined civilization ; their minds and hearts had undergone the severest discipline of an improved age and of bitter experience. Up to the edicts of Nantes in 1590, stripes, persecutions, and outrage were exerted against the unfortunate Huguenots, and in a few years after this they were systemati- cally proscribed. In the year 1669 an edict against emigra- tion was issued. The Huguenots' worship was openly at- tacked. No seats in their temples were allowed. They were prohibited from acting in any branch of the learned profes- sions. They were not even allowed to pursue the calling of any business, by which to support their families.
"It was after they were driven from their homes to take shel- ter in the deserts and forests ; when their property was confis- cated, their marriages annulled, and their children declared illegimate; when their religious worship was wholly interdicted, their ministers expelled the country, or if found inhumanly put to death ; when, in short, all classes of men, women, and children were hunted down like wild beasts and brutally murdered while engaged in their religious rites ; it was then,
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in these dread hours of trial and suffering, that our fathers conceived the idea of quitting their native land. Had they been rebellious subjects, harassing their sovereign by a vexa- tious resistance to the laws of the country, or by an attempt to subvert the peace and order of society ; had they been a sect of persecuting religionists, seeking to repress religious freedom or interfering with the dictates of conscience, some apology might be offered for the relentless spirit with which they were persecuted ; but history ascribes to these humble followers of the cross a character wholly different. Quiet and unobtrusive in their manners, devout in their religious exercises, faithful to their king, and obedient to the civil and political laws of their country, they begged only for that peace of conscience at- tendant on freedom of religious worship, and long bore, with the gentleness of the lamb, the bitter persecutions of their spir- itual foes. No violence, no contempt of their rights, no harsh vituperation, could drive them from fealty to their sovereign. From that sovereign they received a dreaded and armed per- secution. To him they yielded their hearty obedience in all things pertaining to the legitimate duties of his station. In the successes of their king they seldom failed to rejoice. Over his losses they always lamented, when these involved the honor and glory of France. He received from them sincere condo- lence for his misfortunes and fervent prayers for his happiness. But the heart of royalty, tempered by a corrupt and crafty priesthood, was steeled against all the blandishments of the pious Huguenots and their cup of bitterness was now full. The fiat of injured nature was gone forth. They resolved no longer to endure the oppressions of a home they loved still so fondly-but as a child loves his parent, who has mercilessly cast him upon the broad bosom of the world friendless and penniless. The impulses of nature were now obliged to yield, to the stern law of necessity ; and they began seriously to pre- pare to bid adieu to all they loved in their dear native France. "We behold in imagination the vessel as it begins to spread
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its sail to the breeze on the distant voyage. We see the de- voted group-the grave husband, the anxious mother, the un- conscious babe-as they crowd the deck to gaze for the last time upon the receding shore. The bright sun gilds the dis- tant coast, with the rich and varied colors of a summer's land- scape. Behind those vine-clad hills they yet behold the dear- est objects of their affections-beloved friends, and the soil that gave them birth ; all the associations of early life-the remem- brance of childhood's home, their native woods and fountains, their school-boy and school-girl days, and the joy of manhood. But soon we may imagine them turning their visions to the blue heavens above them, now spanned by the arch of hope, and with unwavering courage nerving their hearts to follow on in the appointments of their heavenly leader. The sufferings of the mind are worse than those of the body, yet this did our ancestors brave for freedom of conscience ; nay, more perils by sea and land and the sickening horror of hope deferred, the pangs of disappointment and the untold miseries of coloniza- tion. We cast our eyes towards them in their new homes; we see the interesting group. There still are the resolute hus- band, the brave-hearted matron, and the trembling infant sheltered in its mother's arm. Casting their eyes through the forests, they behold with wonder the majestic oak. Excited by the sublime exhibitions of nature's works, we may imagine them falling upon the earth and in tears of gratitude sending up the first evangelical prayer ever offered in these wilds. From among the thousands who at this time fled from these violent persecutions, South Carolina received a numerous and noble population, constituting some of the best families of the low country-the Marions, Horries, Legares, Desaussures, Manigaults, Laurens, Hugers, Porchers, Lessesnes, Prioleaus, Gaillards, Mazycks, Ravenels, Duboses, Couturiers, St. Ju- liens, and other well-known names ; a race of men gifted with every manly virtue, who have breathed a high-souled chivalric spirit into Carolina character, and have added to her
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fame. May their memories be ever blessed for their fortitude, and the wise resolve to bear it unstained to a land of spiritual freedom ; and may no blight arise in future to retard our on- ward progress, or to damp the moral energies of our people ; may generations yet unborn, in dwelling upon the virtues of those who have gone before them, find something to respect and admire in the recollection of our times and our names. May we succeed in acquiring for ourselves a character distin- guished for moral and mental beauty, so that in ages to come, when collected multitudes shall be gathered together under these shades to commemorate the virtues of our fathers, there shall be no dark shade in the fair face of our being, to break the bright moral view of the past."
I throw myself on the indulgence of Mr. M. C. Maragne, from whose address, delivered in Abbeville last year, I have selected the foregoing extract.
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