Various - Continental Monthly, Vol. II. July, 1862. No. 1.
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Various >> Continental Monthly, Vol. II. July, 1862. No. 1.
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'Do it, Sally--never mind _me_,' cried her husband, joining heartily in
the merriment.
Seizing the collar of my coat with both hands, she drew my face down
till my lips almost touched hers, (I was preparing to blush, and the
Colonel shouted, 'Come, come, I shall tell his wife,') but then, turning
quickly on her heel, she threw herself into a chair, exclaiming, 'I
wouldn't mind, but the _old man would be jealous;_' and adding to the
Colonel, 'You needn't be troubled, sir; no Yankee girl will kiss _you_
till you change your politics.'
'Give me that inducement, and I'll change them on the spot,' said the
Colonel.
'No, no, Dave, 'twouldn't do,' replied the planter, 'the conversion
wouldn't be genuwine--besides, such things arn't proper, except with
blood-relations--and all the Yankees, you know, are first-cousins.'
The conversation then subsided into a more placid mood, but lost none of
its genial good-humor. Refreshments were soon set before us, and while
partaking of them I gathered from our hostess that she was a Vermont
country-girl, who, some three years before, had been induced by liberal
pay, to come South as a teacher. A sister accompanied her, who, about a
year after their arrival, had married a neighboring planter. Wishing to
be near the sister, our hostess had also married and settled down for
life in that wild region. 'I like the country very well,' she added;
'it's a great sight easier living here than in Vermont; but I do hate
these lazy, shiftless, good-for-nothing niggers; they are _so_ slow, and
_so_ careless, and _so_ dirty, that I sometimes think they will worry
the very life out of me. I du believe I'm the hardest mistress in all
the district.'
I learned from her that a majority of the teachers at the South are from
the North, and principally, too, from New-England. Teaching is a very
laborious employment there, far more so than with us, for the
Southerners have no methods like ours, and the same teacher usually has
to hear lessons in branches all the way from Greek and Latin to the
simple A B C. The South has no system of public instruction; no common
schools; no means of placing within the reach of the sons and daughters
of the poor even the elements of knowledge. While the children of the
wealthy are most carefully educated, it is the policy of the ruling
class to keep the great mass of the people in ignorance; and so long as
this policy continues, so long will that section be as far behind the
North as it now is in all that constitutes the elements of prosperity
and true greatness.
The afternoon wore rapidly and pleasantly away in the genial society of
our wayside friends. Politics were discussed, (our host was a Union
man,) the prospects of the turpentine crop talked over, the recent news
canvassed, the usual neighborly topics touched upon, and--I hesitate to
confess it--a considerable quantity of corn-whisky disposed of, before
the Colonel discovered, all at once, that it was six o'clock, and we
were still seventeen miles from the railway station. Arraying ourselves
again in our dried garments, we bade a hasty but regretful 'good-by' to
our hospitable entertainers, and once more took to the road.
The storm had cleared away, but the ground was heavy with the recent
rain, and our horses were sadly jaded with the ride of the morning. We
therefore gave them the reins, and as they jogged on at their leisure,
it was ten o'clock at night before we reached the little hamlet of
W----Station, in the State of North-Carolina.
A large hotel, or station-house, and about a dozen log-shanties made up
the village. Two of these structures were negro-cabins; two were small
groceries, in which the vilest alcoholic compounds were sold at a bit
(ten cents) a glass; one was a lawyer's office, in which was the
post-office, and a justice's court, where, once a month, the small
offenders of the vicinity 'settled up their accounts;' one was a
tailoring and clothing establishment, where breeches were patched at a
dime a stitch, and payment taken in tar and turpentine; and the rest
were private dwellings of one apartment, occupied by the grocers, the
tailor, the switch-tender, the post-master, and the negro _attaches_ of
the railroad. The church and the school-house--the first buildings to go
up in a Northern village, I have omitted to enumerate, because--they
were not there.
One of the natives told me that the lawyer was a 'stuck-up critter;' 'he
don't live; he don't--he puts-up at th' hotel.' And the hotel! Would
Shakspeare, had he known of it, have written of taking one's _ease_ at
his inn? It was a long, framed building, two stories in hight, with a
piazza extending across its side, and a front door crowded as closely
into one corner as the width of the joist would permit. Under the
piazza, ranged along the wall, was a low bench, occupied by about forty
tin wash-basins and water-pails, with coarse, dirty crash towels
suspended on rollers above them. By the side of each of these towels
hung a comb and a brush, to which a lock of every body's hair was
clinging, forming in the total a stock sufficient to establish any
barber in the wig business.
It was, as I have said, ten o'clock when we reached the station.
Throwing the bridles of our horses over the hitching-posts at the door,
we at once made our way to the bar-room. That apartment, which was in
the rear of the building, and communicated with by a long, narrow
passage, was filled almost to suffocation, when we entered, by a cloud
of tobacco-smoke, the fumes of bad whisky, and a crowd of drunken
chivalry, through whom the Colonel with great difficulty elbowed his way
to the counter, where 'mine host' and two assistants were dispensing
'liquid death,' at the rate of ten cents a glass, and of ten glasses a
minute.
'Hello, Colonel! how ar' ye?' cried the red-faced liquor-vender, as he
caught sight of my companion, and--relinquishing his lucrative
employment for a moment--took the Colonel's hand.
'Quite well, thank you, Miles,' said the Colonel, with a certain
patronizing air, 'have you seen my man Moye?'
'Moye, no! What's up with him?'
'He's run away with my horse, Firefly--I thought he would have made for
this station. At what time does the next train go up?'
'Wal, it's due half arter 'leven, but 'taint gin'rally 'long till nigh
one.'
The Colonel was turning to join me at the door, when a well-dressed
young man of very unsteady movements, who was filling a glass at the
counter, and staring at him with a sort of dreamy amazement, stammered
out: 'Moye--run--run a--way, zir! that--k--kant be--by G--d. I
know--him, zir--he's a--a friend of mine, and--I'm--I'm d--d if he an't
hon--honest.'
'About as honest as the Yankees run,' replied the Colonel: 'he's a d--d
thief, sir!'
'Look here--here, zir--don't--don't you--you zay any--thing 'gainst--the
Yankees. D--d if--if I an't--one of 'em mezelf--zir,' said the fellow
staggering toward the Colonel.
'_I_ don't care _what_, you are; you're drunk.'
'You lie--you--you d--d 'ris--'ristocrat--take that,' was the reply, and
the inebriated gentleman aimed a blow, with all his unsteady might, at
the Colonel's face.
The South-Carolinian stepped quickly aside, and dexterously threw his
foot before the other, who--his blow not meeting the expected
resistance--was unable to recover himself, and fell headlong to the
floor. The Colonel turned on his heel, and was walking quietly away,
when the sharp report of a pistol sounded through the apartment, and a
ball tore through the top of his boot, and lodged in the wall within
two feet of where I was standing. With a spring, quick and sure as the
tiger's, the Colonel was on the drunken man. Wrenching away the weapon,
he seized the fellow by the necktie, and drawing him up to nearly his
full hight, dashed him at one throw to the other side of the room. Then
raising the revolver he coolly leveled it to fire.
But a dozen strong men were on him. The pistol was out of his hand, and
his arms were pinioned in an instant; while cries of 'Fair play, sir!'
'He's drunk!' 'Don't hit a man when he's down,' and other like
exclamations, came from all sides.
'Give _me_ fair play, you d--d North-Carolina hounds,' cried the
Colonel, struggling violently to get away, 'and I'll fight the whole
posse of you.'
'One's 'nuff for _you_, ye d--d fire-eatin' 'ristocrat,' said a long,
lean, bushy-haired, be-whiskered individual who was standing near the
counter: 'ef ye wan't ter fight, _I'll_ 'tend to yer case to onst. Let
him go, boys,' he continued as he stepped toward the Colonel, and parted
the crowd that had gathered around him: 'give him the shootin'-iron, and
let's see ef he'll take a man thet's sober.'
I saw serious trouble was impending, and stepping forward, I said to the
last speaker: 'My friend, you have no quarrel with this gentleman. He
has treated that man only as you would have done.'
'P'raps thet's so; but he's a d--d hound of a Seseshener thet's draggin'
us all to h--l; it'll do th' cuntry good to git quit of one on 'em.'
'Whatever his politics are, he's a gentleman, sir, and has done you no
harm--let me beg of you to let him alone.'
'Don't beg any thing for me, Mr. K----' growled the Colonel through his
barred teeth, 'I'll fight the d--d corn-cracker, and his whole race, at
once.'
'No you won't, my friend. For the sake of those at home you won't,' I
said, as I took him by the arm, and partly led, partly forced, him
toward the door.
'And who in h--l ar ye?' asked the 'corn-cracker,' planting himself
squarely in my way.
'I'm on the same side of politics with you, Union to the core!' I
replied.
'Ye ar! Union! Then giv us yer fist,' said he, grasping me by the hand,
'by----it does a feller good to see a man dressed in yer cloes thet
haint 'fraid ter say he's Union, so close to South-Car'lina, tu, as this
ar! Come, hev a drink: come, boys--all round--let's liquor!'
'Excuse me now, my dear fellow--some other time I'll be glad to join
you.'
'Jest as ye say, but thar's my fist, enyhow.'
He gave me another hearty shake of the hand, and the crowd parting, I
made my way with the Colonel out of the room. We were followed by Miles,
the landlord, who, when we had reached the front of the entrance-way,
said: 'I'm right sorry for this row, gentlemen; but th' boys will hev a
time when they git together.'
'Oh! never mind,' said the Colonel, who had recovered his coolness; 'but
why are all these people here?'
'Thar's a barbecue cumin' off to-morrer on the camp-ground, and the
house is cram full.'
'Is that so?' said the Colonel, then turning to me he added, 'Moye has
taken the railroad somewhere else; I must get to a telegraph-office at
once, to head him off. The nearest one is Wilmington. With all these
rowdies here, it will not do to leave the horses alone--will you stay
and keep an eye on them over to-morrow?'
'Yes, I will, cheerfully.'
'Thar's a mighty hard set round har now, Cunnel,' said the landlord;
'and the most peaceable git inter scrapes ef they han't no friends.
Hadn't ye better show the gentleman some of your'n, 'fore you go?'
'Yes, yes, I didn't think of that. Who is here?'
'Wal, thar's Cunnel Taylor, Bill Barnes, Sam Heddleson, Jo' Shackelford.
Andy Jones, Rob Brown, and lots of others.'
'Where's Andy Jones?'
'Reckon he's turned in; I'll see.' As the landlord opened a door which
led from the hall, the Colonel said to me: 'Andy is a Union man, but
he'd fight to the death for me.'
'Sal!' called out the hotel-keeper.
'Yas, massa, I'se har,' was the answer from a slatternly woman, awfully
black in the face, who soon thrust her head from the door.
'Is Andy Jones har?' asked Miles.
'Yas, massa, he'm turned in up thar on de table.'
We followed the landlord into the apartment. It was the dining-room of
the hotel, and by the dim light which came from a smoky fire on the
hearth, I saw it contained about a hundred people, who, wrapped in
blankets, bed-quilts and traveling-shawls, and disposed in all
conceivable attitudes, were scattered about on the hard floor and
tables, sleeping soundly. The room was a long, low apartment--extending
across the whole front of the house--and had a wretched, squalid look.
The fire, which was tended by the negro-woman, (she had spread a blanket
on the floor, and was keeping a drowsy watch over it for the night,) had
been recently replenished with green wood, and was throwing out thick
volumes of black smoke, which, mixing with the effluvia from the lungs
of a hundred sleepers made up an atmosphere next to impossible to
breathe. Not a window was open, and not an aperture for ventilation
could be seen!
Carefully avoiding the arms and legs of the recumbent chivalry, we
picked our way, guided by the negro-girl, to the corner of the room
where the Unionist was sleeping. Shaking him briskly by the shoulder,
the Colonel called out: 'Andy! Andy! wake up!'
'What--what the d----l is the matter?' stammered out the sleeper,
gradually opening his eyes, and raising himself on one elbow, 'Lord
bless you, Cunnel, is thet you? what in----brought _you_ har?'
'Business, Andy. Come, get up, I want to see you, and I can't talk
here.'
The North-Carolinian slowly rose, and throwing his blanket over his
shoulders, followed us from the room. When we had reached the open air
the Colonel introduced me to his friend, who expressed surprise, and a
great deal of pleasure, at meeting a Northern Union man in the Colonel's
company.
'Look after our horses, now, Miles; Andy and I want to talk,' said the
planter to the landlord, with about as little ceremony as he would have
shown to a negro.
I thought the white man did not exactly relish the Colonel's manner, but
saying: 'All right, all right, sir,' he took himself away.
The night was raw and cold, but as all the rooms of the hotel were
occupied, either by sleepers or carousers, we had no other alternative
than to hold our conference in the open-air. Near the railway-track a
light-wood fire was blazing, and, obeying the promptings of the frosty
atmosphere, we made our way to it. Lying on the ground around it,
divested of all clothing except a pair of linsey trowsers and a flannel
shirt, and with their naked feet close to its blaze--roasting at one
extremity, and freezing at the other--were several blacks, the
switch-tenders and woodmen of the station--fast asleep. How human beings
could sleep in such circumstances seemed a marvel, but further
observation convinced me that the Southern negro has a natural aptitude
for that exercise, and will, indeed, bear more exposure than any other
living thing. Nature in giving him such powers of endurance, seems to
have specially fitted him for the life of hardship and privation to
which he is born.
The fire-light enabled me to scan the appearance of my new acquaintance.
He was rather above the medium height, squarely and somewhat stoutly
built, and had an easy and self-possessed, though rough and unpolished
manner. His face, or so much of it as was visible from underneath a
thick mass of reddish gray hair, denoted a firm, decided character; but
there was a manly, open, honest expression about it that won your
confidence in a moment. He wore a slouched hat and a suit of the
ordinary 'sheep's-gray,' cut in the 'sack' fashion, and hanging loosely
about him. He seemed a man who had made his own way in the world, and I
subsequently learned that appearances did not belie him. The son of a
'poor white' man, with scarcely the first rudiments of book-education,
he had, by sterling worth, natural ability, and great force of
character, accumulated a handsome property, and acquired a leading
position in his adopted district. Though on 'the wrong side of
politics,' his personal popularity was so great that for several
successive years he had been elected to represent his county in the
State Legislature. The Colonel, though opposed to him in politics--and
party feeling at the South runs so high that political opponents are
seldom personal friends--had, in the early part of his career, aided him
by his indorsements; and Andy had not forgotten the service. It was easy
to see that while two men could not be more unlike in character and
appearance than my host and the North-Carolinian, they were warm and
intimate friends.
'So, Moye has been raisin h--l gin'rally, Cunnel,' said my new
acquaintance after a time. 'I'm not surprised. I never did b'lieve in
Yankee nigger-drivers--sumhow it's agin natur for a Northern man to go
Southern principles quite so strong as Moye did.'
'Which route do you think he has taken?' asked the Colonel.
'Wal, I reckon arter he tuk to the run, he made fur the mountings. He
know'd you'd head him on the traveled routes; so he's put, I think, fur
the Missusippe, where he'll sell the horse and make North.'
'I'll follow him,' said the Colonel, 'to the ends of the earth. If it
costs me five thousand dollars, I'll see him hung.'
'Wal,' replied Andy, laughing, 'if he's gone North, you'll need a
extradition treaty to kotch him. South-Car'lina, I b'lieve, has set up
fur a furrin country.'
'That's true,' said the Colonel, also laughing, 'she's 'furrin' to the
Yankees, but not to the old North State.'
'D----d if she han't,' replied the North-Carolinian, 'and now she's got
out on our company, I swear she must keep out. We'd as soon think of
goin' to h--l in summer time, as of joining partnership with her.
Cunnel, you're the only decent man in the State--d----d if you
han't--and your politics are a'most bad 'nuff to spile a township. It
allers seemed sort o' queer to me, thet a man with such a mighty good
heart as your'n could be so short in the way of brains.'
'Well, you're complimentary,' replied the Colonel, with the utmost good
nature, 'but let's drop politics; we never could agree, you know. What
shall I do about Moye?'
'Go to Wilmington, and telegraph all creation: wait a day to har, then
if you don't har, go home, hire a native overseer, and let Moye go to
the d---l. Ef it'll du you any good, I'll go to Wilmington with you,
though I did mean to give you secesheners a little h--l here to-morrer.'
'No, Andy, I'll go alone. 'Twouldn't be patriotic to take you away from
the barbecue. You'd 'spile' if you couldn't let off some gas soon.'
'I du b'lieve I shud. Howsumdever, thar's nary a thing I wouldn't do for
you--you knows thet?'
'Yes, I do, and I wish you'd keep an eye on my Yankee friend here, and
see he don't get into trouble with any of the boys--there'll be a hard
set 'round, I reckon.'
'Wal, I will,' said Andy, 'but all he's to du is--keep mouth shet.'
'That seems easy enough,' I replied, laughing.
A desultory conversation followed for about an hour, when the
steam-whistle sounded, and the up-train arrived. The Colonel got on
board, and bidding us 'good-night,' went on to Wilmington. Andy then
proposed we should look up sleeping accommodations. It was useless to
seek quarters at the hotel, but an empty car was on the turn-out, and
bribing one of the negroes, we got access to it, and were soon stretched
at full length on two of its hard-bottomed seats.
* * * * *
The camp-ground was about a mile from the station, and pleasantly
situated in a grove, near a stream of water. It was in frequent use by
the camp-meetings of the Methodist denomination, which sect, at the
South, is partial to these rural religious gatherings. Scattered over
it, with an effort at regularity, were about forty small but neat log
cottages, thatched with the long leaves of the turpentine-pine, and
chinked with branches of the same tree. Each of these houses was floored
with leaves or straw, and large enough to afford sleeping accommodations
for about ten person, provided they spread their bedding on the ground,
and lay tolerably close together. Interspersed among the cabins were
about a dozen canvas tents, which evidently had been erected for this
especial occasion.
Nearly in the centre of the group of huts, a rude sort of scaffold, four
or five feet high, and surrounded by a rustic railing, served for the
speaker's stand. It would seat about a dozen persons, and was protected
by a roof of pine-boughs, interlaced together so as to keep off the sun,
without affording protection from the rain. In the rear of this stand
were two long tables, made of rough boards, and supported on stout
joists, crossed on each other in the form of the letter X. A canopy of
green boughs shaded the grounds, and the whole grove, which was
perfectly free from underbrush, was carpeted with the soft, brown leaves
of the pine.
Being fatigued with the ride of the previous day, I did not awake till
the morning was well advanced, and it was nearly ten o'clock when Andy
and I took our way to the camp-ground. Avoiding the usual route, we
walked on through the forest. It was mid-winter, and vegetation lay dead
all around us, awaiting the time when spring should breathe into it the
breath of life and make it a living thing. There was silence and rest in
the deep wood. The birds were away on their winter wanderings; the
leaves hung motionless on the tall trees, and nature seemed resting from
her ceaseless labor, and listening to the soft music of the little
stream which sung a cheerful song as it rambled on over the roots and
fallen branches that blocked its way. But soon a distant murmur arose,
and we had not proceeded far before as many sounds as were heard at
Babel made a strange concert about our ears. The lowing of the ox, the
neighing of the horse, and the deep braying of another animal, mingled
with a thousand human voices, came through the woods. But above and over
all rose the stentorian tones of the stump speaker,
'As he trod the shaky platform,
With the sweat upon his brow.'
About a thousand persons were already assembled on the ground, and a
more motley gathering I never beheld. All sorts of costumes and all
classes of people were there; but the genuine back-woods corn-crackers
composed the majority of the assemblage. As might be expected, much the
larger portion of the audience were men; still I saw some women and not
a few children, many of the country people having taken advantage of the
occasion to give their families a holiday. Some occupied benches in
front of the stand, though a larger number were seated around in groups,
within hearing of the speaker, but paying very little attention to what
he was saying. A few were whittling, a few pitching quoits, or playing
leap-frog, and quite a number were having a quiet game of whist, euchre,
or 'seven-up.'
The speaker was a well-dressed, gentlemanly-looking man, and a tolerably
good orator. He seemed accustomed to addressing a jury, for he displayed
all the adroitness in handling his subject, and in appealing to the
prejudices of his hearers, that we see in successful special pleaders.
But he overshot his mark. To nine out of ten of his audience, his words
and similes, though correct and sometimes beautiful, were as
unintelligible as the dead languages. He advocated immediate,
unconditional secession; and I thought from the applause which met his
remarks, whenever he seemed to make himself understood, that the large
majority of those present were of the same way of thinking.
He was succeeded by a heavy-browed, middle-aged man, slightly bent, and
with hair a little turned to gray, but still hale, athletic, and in the
prime and vigor of manhood. His pantaloons and waistcoat were of the
common home-spun, and he used, now and then, a word of the country
dialect; but as a stump-speaker, he was infinitely superior to the more
polished orator who had preceded him.
He, too, advocated secession as a right and a duty--separation, now and
forever from the dirt-eating, money-loving Yankees, who, he was ashamed
to say, had the same ancestry, and worshiped the same God as himself. He
took the bold ground that slavery is a curse to both the black and the
white, but that it was forced upon this generation before it was born,
by these same greedy, grasping Yankees, who would sell not only the
bones and sinews of their fellowmen, but--worse than that--their own
souls, for gold. It was forced upon them without their consent, and now
that it had become interwoven with all their social life, and was a
necessity of their very existence, the hypocritical Yankees would take
it from them, because, forsooth, it was a sin and a wrong--as if _they_
had to bear its responsibility, or the South could not settle its own
account with its Maker!
'Slavery is now,' he continued, 'indispensable to us. Without it,
cotton, rice, and sugar will cease to grow, and the South will starve.
What if it works abuses? What if the black, at times, is overburdened,
and his wife and daughters debauched? Man is not perfect any
where--there are wrongs in every society. It is for each one to give his
account, in such matters, to his God. But in this are we worse than
they? Are there not abuses in society at the North? Are not their
laborers overworked? While sin here hides itself under cover of the
night, does it not there stalk abroad at noonday? If the wives and
daughters of blacks are debauched here, are not the wives and daughters
of whites debauched there? and will not a Yankee barter away the
chastity of his own mother for a dirty dollar? Who fill our brothels?
Yankee women! Who load our penitentiaries, crowd our whipping-posts,
debauch our slaves, and cheat and defraud us all? Yankee men! And I say
unto you, fellow-citizens,' and here the speaker's form seemed to dilate
with the wild enthusiasm which possessed him, ''come out from among
them; be ye separate, and touch not the unclean thing,' and thus saith
the Lord God of hosts, who will guide you, and lead you, if need be, to
battle and to victory!'
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