A south-side view of slavery; or, Three months at the South, in 1854

Front matter

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S. G. & E. L. ELBERT xhm\ m af

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Contents

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Introductory Statement, 3

Chapter

Chapter II. Arrival And First Impressions

The steam tug reached the landing, and the slaves were all about us. One thing immediately surprised me ; they were all in good humor, and some of them in a broad laugh. The delivery of every trunk from the tug to the wharf was the occasion of some hit, or repartee, and every burden was borne with a jolly word, grimace, or motion. The lifting of one leg in laughing seemed as natural as a Frenchman's shrug. I asked one of them to place a trunk writh a lot of baggage ; it was done ; up went the hand to the hat — " Any thing more, please sir ? " What a contrast, I involuntarily said to myself, to that troop at the Albany landing on our Western Railroad ! and on those piles of boards, and on the roofs of the sheds, and at the piers, in New York ! I began to like these slaves. I began to laugh with them. It was irresistible. Who could have convinced me, an hour before, that slaves could have any other effect upon me than to make me feel sad ? One fellow, in all the hurry and bustle of landing us, could not help relating how, in jumping on board, his boot was caught between two planks, and " pulled clean off ; " and how " dis ole feller went clean over into de wotter," with a shout, as though it was a merry adventure.

One thing seemed clear; they were not so much 2 cowed down as I expected. Perhaps, however, they were a fortunate set. I rode away, expecting soon to have some of my disagreeable anticipations verified.

In pursuance of the plan indicated in the beginning, I shall now relate the impressions which were involuntarily made upon me while residing in some of the slave States. As before mentioned, I was making no deliberate investigations, and had no theory to maintain ; but the things which daily passed before me led to reflections and conclusions, which will appear, some of them, as we proceed, but more especially in the review. Should these pages meet the eyes of any to whom the things here described are perfectly familiar, they will read them with forbearance, and remember that the writer's object is not to give descriptions, but just to relate those things which led him to certain reflections and conclusions ; these conclusions alone, so far as they may be useful, constituting the purpose of the book.

All things being arranged at your resting-place, the first impulse is to see how the land lies, settle certain landmarks, and, above all things, find the post-office.

The city of Savannah abounds in parks, as they are called — squares, fenced in, with trees. Young children and infants were there, with very respectable colored nurses — young women, with bandanna and plaid cambric turbans, and superior in genteel appearance to any similar class, as a whole, in any of our cities. They could not be slaves. Are they slaves ? " Certainly," says the friend at your side ; " they each belong to some master or mistress."

In behalf of a score of mothers of my acquaintance, and of some fathers, I looked with covetous feelings upon the relation which I saw existed between these nurses and children. These women seemed not to have the air and manner of hirelings in the care and treatment of the children ; their conversation with them, the degree of seemingly maternal feeling which was infused into their whole deportment, could not fail to strike a casual observer.

Then these are slaves. Their care of the children, even if it be slave labor, is certainly equal to that which is free.

" But that was a freeman who just passed us ? "

" No ; he is Mr. W.'s servant, near us."

" He a slave ? " Such a rhetorical lifting of the arm, such a line of grace as the hand described in descending easily from the hat to the side, such a glow of good feeling on recognizing neighbor B., with a supplementary act of respect to the stranger with him, were wholly foreign from my notions of a slave. " Where are your real slaves, such as we read of ? "

" These are about a fair sample."

" But they seem to me like your best quotations of cotton; where are your 'ord., mid. fair to fair, damaged, and poor'?"

Our fancies with regard to the condition of the slaves proceed from our northern repugnance to slavery, stimulated by many things that we read. The every-day life, the whole picture of society at the south, is not presented to us so frequently — indeed it cannot be, nor can it strike the mind as strongly — as slave auctions and separations of families, fugitives hiding in dismal swamps, and other things which appeal to our sensibilities. Whatever else may be true of slavery, these things, we say, are indisputable ; and they furnish materials for the fancy to build into a world of woe.

18 A SOUTH-SIDE VIEW OF SLAYERY.

Without supposing that I had yet seen slavery, it was nevertheless true that a load was lifted from my mind by the first superficial look at the slaves in the city.

It was as though I had been let down by necessity into a cavern which I had peopled with disagreeable sights, and, on reaching bottom, found daylight streaming in, and the place cheerful.

A better-looking, happier, more courteous set of people I had never seen, than those colored men, women, and children whom I met the first few days of my stay in Savannah. It had a singular effect on my spirits. They all seemed glad to see me. I was tempted with some vain feelings, as though they meant to pay me some special respect. It was all the more grateful, because for months sickness and death had covered almost every thing, even the faces of friends at home, with sadness to my eye, and my spirits had drooped. But to be met and accosted with such extremely civil, benevolent looks, to see so many faces break into pleasant smiles in going by, made one feel that he was not alone in the world, even in a land of strangers.

How such unaffected politeness could have been learned under the lash I did not understand. It conflicted with my notions of slavery. I could not have dreamed that these people had been "down trodden," " their very manhood crushed out of them," " the galling yoke of slavery breaking every human feeling, and reducing them to the level of brutes." It was one of the pleasures of taking a walk to be greeted by all my colored friends. I felt that I had taken a whole new race of my fellow-men by the hand. I took care to notice each of them, and get his full smile and salutation ; many a time I would gladly have stopped and paid a good price for a certain " good morning," courtesy, and bow ; it was worth more than gold ; its charm consisted in its being unbought, unconstrained, for I was an entire stranger. Timidity, a feeling of necessity, the leer of obliged deference, I nowhere saw; but the artless, free, and easy manner which burdened spirits never wear. It was difficult to pass the colored people in the streets without a smile awakened by the magnetism of their smiles. Let any one at the north, afflicted with depression of spirits, drop down among these negroes, walk these streets, form a passing acquaintance with some of them, and unless he is a hopeless case, he will find himself in moods of cheerfulness never awakened surely by the countenances of the whites in any strange place. Involuntary servitude did not present itself to my eye or thoughts during the two weeks which I spent in Savannah, except as I read advertisements in the papers of slaves for sale.

How the appearance of the colored people in villages and plantation districts would compare with that of city household servants, was a question which was reserved for future observation.

20 A SOUTH-SIDE VIEW OF SLAVERT.

Chapter III. New Views Of The Relations Of The Slaves

The gentleman at whose house I was guest commanded the military battalion. The parade day occurred during my visit. Three bands came successively within an hour in the morning to salute him. These bands were composed of slaves, so called ; but never did military bands suggest the idea of involuntary servitude less, or feel servitude of any kind for the time less, than these black warriors. They approached with their quickstep tunes, formed in front of the dwelling, faced the street, (a respectful manoeuvre, unlike our salutes, which make us all face the music,) performed their salute, and marched off in good style. Their personal appearance was in several instances very striking. One of the bass drummers was a fine specimen of the human frame, his points set off by his tight military dress, while a pair of green periscopic spectacles gave an additional touch to his looks. There was nothing grotesque in their appearance, nothing corresponding to Ethiopic minstrelsy in our northern caricatures ; any military company at the north would have feelings of respect for their looks and performances.

Going out with a friend to see the line formed, he asked me to accept a cane for the walk. On declining, I was pressed to take it by the remark that I surely would if I would read the inscription : " From the live oak of the frigate Constitution, presented," &c. What had Georgians to do with that frigate, I said to myself, the frigate which was the pride and boast of us Massachusetts boys in the war ?

The thought of our family of States came over me, our States like the sea, " its waves many, its waters one," each claiming the frigate Constitution as hers, "gallant Hull " hers, our whole naval renown hers. Cords of love stronger than death holds us together ; when the attempt to break our Union begins to draw upon these secret bands, they will be found invincible. Petulant, angry members of the household will frequently threaten, like passionate children, to leave the house. Let them try. They will find secret weaknesses and childlike relentings interfering with their sturdy anger, and tears will start unbidden in better moments.

As the line was forming on " the Bay," the tender of a locomotive happened to be drawn along on trucks, between the spectators and the military, on its way to the railroad station. The name of the engine and tender, in large letters, on the tender, was NEW HAMP- SHIRE. My New England feelings arose and glowed within me. It was weak, perhaps, to feel any thing like a tear, even of pleasure ; but the sudden presentation of a proud New England name, the momentary commingling there in Georgia of north and south, the kind blending of Nebraska and Anti-Nebraska in that accidental meeting, the easy, home feeling with which the New Hampshire took the liberty to pass along in the midst of the pageant, and many other similar thoughts and feelings, made me reflect what a death it would be if our Union should suffer fratricide or suicide.

The commander of the military on this occasion, though still justly claiming to be a young man, led the Georgia detachment of troops to our north-eastern frontier during our trouble respecting the boundary question. Maine and Georgia were the same country to him. Should the north ever need Georgia soldiers to battle against a common foe, the hands of one who has no superior in all that constitutes a Christian lady will, with the old southern patriotism, tie his sash for him as she did on that morning of the parade.

The tender (but let no one play upon the word from the effect of the cumbersome thing on my feelings) being out of the way, the bands wheeled into marching order, and the battalion went to the parade ground to the music of those colored men, affording a northerner some novel and pleasant thoughts. It was one of the last things which I had expected to see — the soldiers of the south following the music made by such men, their step enlivened, their spirits cheered by them. It was good and pleasant to see them in that unity, the proverbial love of music in the colored race being permitted to gratify itself in discoursing martial sounds to their masters.

TThen I awoke the next morning, I found that a slight frost had touched some of mv northernmost fancies about the slaves. I knew that I had much vet to learn ; but I had thus far seen things which had never been related to me, and I took into my reckoning terms which I had wholly neglected in trying to work out at home the problem of human happiness at the south.

If it be less romantic, it is more instructive, to see the fire department of a southern city composed of colored men in their company uniforms, parading, and in

A SOUTH-SIDE VIEW OF SLAVEKY. 23

times of service working, with all the enthusiasm of Philadelphia or Boston firemen. Thus it is given to the colored population of some cities and towns at the south to protect the dwellings and stores of the city against fire — the dwellings and property of men who, as slave owners, are regarded by many at the north with feelings of commiseration, chiefly from being exposed, as we imagine, to the insurrectionary impulses of an oppressed people. To organize that people into a protective force, to give them the largest liberty at times when general consternation and confusion would afford them the best opportunities to execute seditionary and murderous purposes, certainly gave me, as a northerner, occasion to think that whatever is true theoretically, and whatever else may be practically true, with regard to slavery, the relations and feelings between the white and colored people at the south were not wholly as I had imagined them to be. These two instances of confidence and kindness gave me feelings of affection for the blacks and respect for their masters. Not a word had been said to me about slavery ; my eyes taught me that some practical things in the system are wholly different from my anticipations. " I saw it, and received instruction."

Chapter IV. Favorable Appearances In Southern Society And In Slavery

When we find ourselves to have been under wrong impressions, and begin to have our notions corrected, our disposition is to reach an opposite extreme, and to see things in a light whose glare is as false as the previous twilight. I resolved to watch my feelings in this respect, and take the true gauge of this subject.

Section I. — Good Order

The streets of southern cities and towns immediately struck me as being remarkably quiet in the evening and at night.

" What is the cause of so much quiet ? " I said to a friend.

"Our colored people are mostly at home. After eight o'clock they cannot be abroad without a written pass, which they must show on being challenged, or go to the guard house. The master must pay fifty cents for a release. White policemen in cities, and in towns patrols of white citizens, walk the streets at night."

Here I received my first impression of interference with the personal liberty of the colored people. The white servants, if there be any, the boys, the apprentices, the few Irish, have liberty ; the colored men are under restraint..

But though I saw that this was a feature of slavery, I did not conclude that it would be well to dissolve the Union in order to abolish it. Apart from the question of slavery, it was easy to see that to keep such a part of the population out of the streets after a reasonable hour at night, preventing their unrestrained, promiscuous roving, is a great protection to them, as well as to the public peace. In attending evening worship, in visiting at any hour, a written pass is freely given ; so that, after all, the bondage is theoretical, but still it is bondage. Is it an illustration, I asked myself, of other things in slavery, which are theoretically usurpations, but practically benevolent ?

From the numbers in the streets, though not great, you would not suspect that the blacks are restricted at night ; yet I do not remember one instance of rudeness or unsuitable behavior among them in any place. Around the drinking saloons there were white men and boys whose appearance and behavior reminded me of " liberty and pursuit of happiness " in similar places at the north ; but there were no colored men there : the slaves are generally free as to street brawls and open drunkenness. I called to mind a place at the north whose streets every evening, and especially on Sabbath evenings, are a nuisance. If that place could enforce a law forbidding certain youths to be in the streets after a certain hour without a pass from their employers, it would do much to raise them to an equality in good manners with their more respectable colored fellow-men at the south. I had occasion to pity some white southerners, as they issued late at night from a drinking-place, in being deprived of the wholesome restraint laid upon the colored population. The moral and religious character of the colored people at the south owes very much to this restraint.

Putting aside for the time all thoughts of slavery, I indulged myself in thinking and feeling, here is strong government. It has a tonic, bracing effect upon one's feelings to be in its atmosphere ; and as Charles Lamb tells us not to inquire too narrowly of every mendicant whether the " wife and six young children " are a fiction, but to give, and enjoy it, so there was a temptation to disregard for the time the idea of slavery, and, becoming a mere utilitarian, to think of three millions of our population as being under perfect control, and in this instance indisputably to their benefit.

The first instance in which I saw slaves, men and women, acting in an associated capacity, was in a colored choir. My object in speaking of this will appear in the sequel. Would that some of my musical friends could enjoy the performances of that choir at that church. A tall, stout negro, with an intelligent face, rose to sing, and his choir stood up. He doubled back his little hymn book in one hand, and held the singing book, doubled back also, in the other, both at arm's length. He put one foot in the chair where he had been sitting, as though for greater purchase, and then pitched the tune with marked distinctness, giving all the parts. Off he started with an explosive note that waked up every echo, beginning, as directed, at the third verse, —

" Fools never raise their thoughts so high."

His arms, his bended knee, his whole body, were instinct with feeling. He made, perhaps, three times as many notes as were written, counting his slurs, and his division of white-faced notes into the due allowance of pointed ones, with other embellishments, all so exciting that the short yellow girl, the principal alto, with round face and neat attire, standing next to him, feeling the windage of his motions and the interruption to the movement by his crotchets and fancies, stopped singing, shook with an internal laugh, with an occasional heat-lightning betrayal of her beautiful white teeth, which she covered as quick as possible to conceal her mirth. She showed wonderful self-control, and finally succeeded in carrying her part ; but at the next singing, she and the other girls removed to the other side of the pillar, which they left between themselves and the leader in self-defence. He was all the time solemn and devout ; his wish evidently being fulfilled, that his heart, whatever might be said of his voice, might " in tune be found." An elderly negro with white hair, his head thrown back ; an intensely black man, of towering stature, in a Petersham coat; a genteel youth with master's plaid cassimere riding jacket; and a few women, conspired to sing the hymn with an effect deeply impressive and edifying, however much some of the features in the performance might tend for a moment to divert the feelings. No sooner was the benediction pronounced than, in keeping with the custom in some white congregations of interrupting the thoughts of the retiring audience by boisterous organ playing, this choir started a select piece : —

"Hark ! the vesper hymn is stealing," &c.

It being not much after twelve at noon, this vesper was as little appropriate as the organ playing just mentioned, but was sanctioned by the practice of those whose example the blacks follow for good or ill.

The impression here made upon me, or rather confirmed and illustrated afresh, was, that the slaves, so far as I had seen, were unconscious of any feeling of restraint ; the natural order of life proceeded with them ; they did not act like a driven, overborne people, stealing about with sulky looks, imbruted by abuse, crazed, stupidly melancholic. People habitually miserable could not have conducted the musical service of public worship as they did ; their looks and manner gave agreeable testimony that, in spite of their condition, they had sources of enjoyment and ways of manifesting it which suggested to a spectator no thought of involuntary servitude. My theory was, that they ought to be perpetually unhappy. I tried to persuade myself that they were. Ten thousands of people are miserable on their account, and my wonder was, that the slaves themselves were not continually verifying and warranting all the distress of which they are the occasion. This is one of those northern fancies which ought not to be confessed, if one has much regard to being ridiculed at the south, and mourned over by some at the north.

Though not having as yet gone so far in looking at slavery as Goldsmith's Traveler had wandered in seeking for the best state of society, I was nevertheless reminded, more than once, of the conclusion to which he came on his return to England, —

" In every government, though terrors reign, Though tyrant kings or tyrant laws restrain, How small, of all that human hearts endure, That part which laws or kings can cause or cure ! "

In churches generally, the colored people occupy the galleries, sometimes including that portion which with us is used by the choir, the singers in such cases sitting below. As a preacher and as a hearer, I have had opportunities to witness their appearance in public worship, and in no case have I seen inattention or sleep. With much fixedness of posture, the face frequently resting on the hand, with the elbow on the rail, some standing, all looking at the speaker, they were an example of decorum, and of that demeanor which encourages a public speaker. In an audience in which a large number of colored people were sitting in the gallery opposite the pulpit, it being somewhat dark, I noticed occasional quiet disclosures of white teeth, like fireflies after dark, as feelings of gratification in one and another, at some affecting expression in the sermon, made them smile.

My surprise and pleasure experienced a high tide as I noticed something which I may find it difficult to make some of my readers understand, or believe.

Coming out of church the first Sabbath which I spent in a country village, I saw a group of colored men standing under the trees around the house, waiting for the rest of the people to pass out. I could not be mistaken in my impression from their looks that they were Christian men. Their countenances were intelligent and happy ; but the thing to which I allude, and of which these men gave me my first impression, was, the dress of the slaves.

Section II. — The Dress of the Slaves

To see slaves with broadcloth suits, well-fitting and nicely-ironed fine shirts, polished boots, gloves, umbrellas for sunshades, the best of hats, their young men with their blue coats and bright buttons, in the latest style, white Marseilles vests, white pantaloons, brooches in their shirt bosoms, gold chains, elegant sticks, and some old men leaning on their ivory and silver-headed staves, as respectable in their attire as any who that day went to the house of God, was more than I was prepared to see. As to that group of them under the trees, had I been unseen, I would have followed my impulse to shake hands with the whole of them, as ? vent to my pleasure in seeing slaves with all the bearing of respectable, dignified Christian gentlemen. As it was, I involuntarily lifted my hat to them, which was responded to by them with such smiles, uncovering of the head, and graceful salutations, that, scribe or Pharisee, I felt that I did love such greetings in the market-places from such people.

Then I fell into some reflections upon the philosophy of dress as a powerful means of securing respect, and thought how impossible it must soon become to treat with indignity men who respected themselves, as these men evidently did ; nay, rather, how impossible it already was for masters who would so clothe their servants to treat them as cattle. Further acquaintance with that place satisfied me that this inference was right. There is one southern town, at least, where it would be morally as impossible for a good servant to be recklessly sold, or to be violently separated from his family, or to be abused with impunity, as in any town at the north.

On seeing these men in their Sabbath attire, and feeling toward them as their whole appearance compelled me to do, I understood one thing which before was not explained. I had always noticed that southerners seldom used the word slaves* in private conversation. I supposed that it was conscience that made them change the word, as they had also omitted it in the Constitution of the United States. But I was soon unable to use the word myself in conversation, after seeing them in their Sabbath dress, and as my hearers, and in families ; their appearance and condition in so great a proportion making the idea connected with the word slave incompatible with the impressions received from them. Let no one draw sweeping conclusions from these remarks, but wait till we have together seen and heard other things, and in the mean time only gather from what has been said that our fancies respecting the colored people at the south, as well as their masters, are not all of them, probably, correct.

But the women, the colored women, in the streets on the Sabbath, put my notions respecting the appearance of the slaves to utter discomfiture. At the north an elegantly-dressed colored woman excites mirth. Every northerner knows that this is painfully true. Gentlemen, ladies, boys, and girls never pass her without a feeling of the ludicrous ; a feeling which is followed in some — would it were so in all — by compunction and shame. It was a pleasant paradox to find that where the colored people are not free, they have in many things the most liberty, and among them the liberty to dress handsomely, and be respected in it.

You do not see the tawdriness of color, the superfluity of yellow, the violations of taste in the dress of the colored women at the south to the degree which you observe in some other .places. One reason, if not the chief, is, they each have a mistress, a matron, or young lady, to advise and direct them, and to be responsible in 3 the community for their good appearance. They also wear fabrics and millinery which either good taste, or, at least, means superior to theirs, originally selected for the use of their mistresses and white members of the family. It may seem extravagant to some, but the pride we have in the respectable appearance of children is felt by southern mistresses with regard to their servants. A grotesque, ill-fashioned dress on a female servant appearing in public on the Sabbath, would be sure to be a subject of a hint from a neighbor or friend. My previous images of slaves were destroyed by the sight of those women with dresses which would have been creditable to the population of any town at the north. The most surprising sight of all, as an evidence of real refinement and good taste, was, here and there, a simple straw bonnet with a plain white ribbon, and a black silk dress. Such is the ordinary appearance of the women in a country town on the Sabbath, and indeed in the cities Fashion hardly stretches her influence further. Mixed with these specimens of the putting on of apparel are seen, of course, very plain, humble clothing and turbans, and instances of great neglect in dress.

It must be observed that these people, men and women, were country people, many of them plantation hands.. The difference between them and city slaves was only superficial.

Section III. — The Children of the Slaves

But of all the touching sights of innocence and love appealing to you unconsciously for your best feelings of tenderness and affection, the colored young children have never been surpassed in my experience. Might I choose a class of my fellow-creatures to instruct and love, I should be drawn by my present affection toward them to none more readily than to these children of the slaves ; nor should I expect my patience and affection to be more richly rewarded elsewhere. Extremes of disposition and character, of course, exist among them, as among others ; but they are naturally as bright, affectionate, and capable as other children, while the ways in which your instructions impress them, the reasonings they excite, the remarks occasioned by them, are certainly peculiar.