It may appear, to those of your readers who have had the patience to follow me thus far in this series of letters, that I have dwelt at an unwarrantable length upon the industry of the Atlantic tier of the Southern States, while there remains before me the so much greater field of the Southwest, with its so much greater fertility and promise of consequence, industrial and political; but it should be considered that the application of labor—the means of wealth—are at present much less diversified and interesting in details in the latter, than in the former; being confined entirely—so far, at least, as they will come within the range of my observation—to the production of cotton and sugar. I will, [190] however, in my next, proceed westward in an account of my traveling observations, and return to the Atlantic States only as I have occasion to in describing the culture of and commerce in cotton. In this letter I will write of the economy of slave labor, as observed more especially in the district lately described, and add a few miscellaneous notes illustrating the general condition and habits of the negroes.

I have shown the advantages of the “task” system of working slaves, which is generally followed on the Atlantic plantations south of Virginia. It evidently has the effect to make the negroes ordinarily more active and energetic in their work than I represented them to be in my earlier letters, and probably tends to encourage a high degree of skill within certain narrow limits. Could the hope of reward for faithfulness, instead of the fear of punishment for negligence, be added to it, and some encouragement be given to the application of the mind of the laborer, to a more distant and elevated result than the release from his clay’s toil—as, it seems to me, there easily might be—it would, inevitably, have an improving effect upon his character. But, on the contrary, the tasked laborer is always watched as closely as possible—a driver standing by, often with a whip in his hand, that he may be afraid to do work slightingly. He is trusted as little as possible to use his own discretion, and it is taken for granted that he will never do anything that he dares avoid. In short, he is treated as a slave—the body of a man, moved only by outward force; a mind, acted upon only by fear; a soul, without responsibility.

Take men of any original character of mind, and use them as mere animal machines, to be driven by the motive-power of base fear; provide the necessities of animal life in such a way that the want of them shall afford no stimulus to contrivance, labor and providence; work them mechanically under a task-master, so that they shall have no occasion to use discretion, except to avoid the imposition of additional labor, or other punishment; deny them as much as possible the means of enlarged information and of high mental culture—and would they not, as a matter of course, be stupid, indolent, wasteful and treacherous—and constantly become of less and less value as producers, and more and more expensive as consumers? Put the best race of men under heavens into the land where all industry was obliged to bear the weight of such a system, and inevitably their ingenuity, enterprise and skill would be paralyzed, the land would be impoverished, its resources of wealth would remain undeveloped, or they would be wasted; and only by the favor of some extraordinary advantage, could it compare in prosperity with countries adjoining, in which a more simple, natural and healthy system of labor prevailed.

Such is the case with the Slave States. On what does their wealth and prosperity, such as it is, depend? On certain circumstances of topography, climate and soil, that give them almost a monopoly of the supply of the most important article of the world’s commerce.

Conventions of planters, met to consider preposterous propositions for “regulating the Cotton Market,” annually confess that if the price of this [191] staple should be very greatly reduced by its extended culture in other parts of the world, or by any cause greatly diminishing its consumption, every proprietor at the South would be ruined. If this humiliating state of things, extending over so large a region, and yet so distinctly defined by the identical lines that separate the Slave from the free States, is not caused by the unfortunate system of labor which distinguishes the former, I know not what it can be attributed to.

That such is the effect of Slavery, is the opinion of every foreigner or Northern man, of respectable powers of observation and impartial judgment, who has resided long at the South, that I have met. An eminent merchant of New-York, who has long had intimate commercial and friendly relations with all parts of the South, and who has spent weeks on some of the best plantations, lately expressed his conviction of this to me, in the strongest manner. I know a gentleman in Georgia, a slaveholder himself, and a man of great and increasing wealth, who is so well convinced of the fallacious basis of all Southern schemes of improvement, that he invests his capital wholly in Northern securities, and who is educating his children at the North, especially to free them from the influence of slavery; and has expressed to them his wish that they should determine never to own a slave. I have heard of more than one wealthy Georgian who has sent his son to spend several years in some Northern manufacturing establishment, that he might acquire Northern habits of industry, self-discipline, and quiet energy.

I have described at length the rice plantation of a gentleman born at the North, and with the business habits of a large and successful Northern manufacturing proprietor. I do not believe there is a plantation at the South managed more discreetly and judiciously with reference to profit, at the same time with Christian humanity towards the negroes; nevertheless I saw, during my visit of a few days, repeated instances of the waste and loss that must be connected with an extensive employment of slave labor: gates left open and bars left down, against standing orders; rails removed from fences, supposed to be to kindle fires with; mules lamed, and implements broken carelessly; a flat-boat, carelessly secured, going adrift into the river; men ordered to cart rails for a new fence, depositing them so that a double expense of labor would be required to lay them, more than would have been needed if they had been placed as they might almost as easily have been, by a slight exercise of forethought; men ordered to fill up holes made by alligators or craw-fish, in an important embankment, discovered to have merely patched over the outside, having taken pains only to make it appear that they had executed their task, not having been overlooked by a driver; men not having performed duties that were entrusted to them, making statements which their master was obliged to receive as sufficient excuse, though he believed them to be false—all going to show the carelessness, indolence, and mere eye-service of the slave.

The habitual misapplication and waste of labor on many of the rice plantations, is inconceivably great. Owing to the proverbial stupidity and dogged prejudice of the negro (but peculiar to him only as he is more carefully [192] poisoned with ignorance than the laborer of other countries), it is exceedingly difficult to introduce new and improved methods of applying his labor. He always strongly objects to all new-fashioned implements, and if they are forced into his hands, will contrive to break them, or make them only do such work as shall compare unfavorably with what he has been accustomed to do without them. It is a common thing to see a large gang of negroes, each carrying about four shovelsfull of earth upon a board balanced on his head, walking slowly along on the embankment, so as to travel around two sides of a large field, perhaps for a mile, to fill a breach—a job which an equal number of Irishmen would accomplish, by laying planks across the field and running wheelbarrows upon them, in a tenth of the time. The clumsy iron hoe is everywhere made to do the work of pick, spade, shovel and plow. I have seen it used to dig a grave. On many plantations a plow has never been used, the land being prepared for the crop by chopping with the hoe, as I described in my last. There is reason for this on the newly-cleared rice-ground, perhaps, encumbered as it is with the close-standing stumps and strong roots and protuberances of the late cypress swamps,though I should suppose it would be more economical to grub these by hand sufficiently to admit of the use of a strong plow, before attempting to get a crop. On old plantations, where the stumps have been removed, the surface is like a garden-bed, the soil a dark, rich, mellow, and exceedingly fine loam, the proportion of sand varying very much in different districts, but always considerable, and sufficient, I should suppose, to prevent an injurious glazing from the plow, unless the land was very poorly drained. Yet even on these the plow is not in general use.

Trials have been made on some of the South Carolina plantations of English horse-drills, I understood, without satisfactory success; but I can hardly doubt that some modification of them might be substituted advantageously for the very laborious hoe and hand process of planting. I should think, too, the horse-hoe, now coming into use in England, for cleaning wheat, which is drilled nearly or quite one-half closer than rice usually is, might be adapted to rice-culture with much saving of labor over the present method of hand-hoeing. Half an acre a day is the usual task of a negro at this operation. Garrett’s horse-hoe, on light land, will easily go over ten acres, employing one horse and one man and a boy. The Judges of the Royal Agricultural Society, at a trial in 1851, reported that the work done by it was far superior to any hand-hoeing. It requires to be guided, of course, with great carefulness, and, perhaps, could not be entrusted to ordinary negro field-hands.

I am not aware that any application of the reaping machines, now in use on every large grain farm at the North, has been made in the rice harvest. By the use of a portable tramway for them to run upon, I should think they might be substituted for the present exceedingly slow and toilsome method of reaping with the sickle, with economy and great relief to the laborers. Such portable tramways are in use in England for removing the turnip crop from moist fields in Winter, and it is found that men can earn 60 cents a day [193] contracting to remove heavy crops at the rate of $1. 50 an acre, shifting the trams themselves. It is probable, therefore, that the rice crop might be taken out of the wet ground and carried much more rapidly, and at less expense, to the stack-yard, in this way, than by the really cruel method now employed.

Could these, and other labor-saving appliances, in general use elsewhere, be introduced, and competition of labor be obtained by the introduction of coolies, laboring freely, as they may be had, accustomed to labor in their native rice-fields, at exceedingly low wages, the price of rice might be very greatly reduced without diminishing the profit of its culture.

SLAVE MARRIAGES AND BURIALS.

Slave marriages: I have a few notes on this subject, made in Georgia, but your pleasant correspondent, “Nein,” has taken the wind out of my sails by her happy description of a wedding in high negro life, and, with a few appropriate anecdotes, has given you a better understanding of the nature of the relation that is formed between husband and wife, under the institution of Slavery, than I should have been able to. I will, therefore, only add another instance in point to her remarks, with a few observations on the weddings of plantation slaves, and finish this letter upon the opposite tack, of negro funerals.

A slave, who was hired (not owned) by a friend of mine in Savannah, called upon him one morning while I was there, to say that he wished to marry a woman in the evening, and wanted a ticket from him to authorize the ceremony. “I thought you were married,” said my friend.

“Yes, master, but that woman hab leave me and go ’long wid nodder man.”

“Indeed! Why, you had several children by her, did not you?

“Yes, master, we hab thirteen, but now she gone ’long wid ’nodder man.”

“But will your church permit you to marry another woman so soon?” “Yes, master, I tell ’em the woman I had leave me and go ’long wid ’nodder man, and she say she don’t mean to come back, and I can’t be ’spected to lib widout any woman at all, so dey say dey grant me de divorce.”

On the plantations the ceremony of marriage varied very much; sometimes there is none at all, the parties merely asking leave of their master, and as soon as a cabin is provided for them, going to live together; sometimes it is performed by their master, generally by the negro-preacher, often by a white clergy-man.

I was standing with my friend, Mr. A., looking at a gang of negroes engaged in listing a cotton-field, when he said to a girl who was vigorously plying the hoe near us, “Is that Lucy?—Ah, Lucy, what’s this I hear about you?”

The girl simpered, but did not answer or discontinue her work.

“What is this I hear about you and Sam, eh?”

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The girl grinned, and whispered, “Yes, sir.”

“Sam came to see me this morning.”

“If master pleases.”

“Very well, you may come up to the house Saturday night, and your mistress will have something for you.”

There was no law on this plantation that the negroes should not marry off the place, but intercourse with other plantations was discouraged, and they seldom did so.

When a man and woman wished to live with each other, they were required to ask leave of their master, and unless there was some very obvious objection this was always granted, and a cabin was allotted to them, and presents were made of dresses and housekeeping articles. A marriage ceremony, in the same form as that used by free people, was conducted by the negro preacher, and they were encouraged to make the occasion memorable and gratifying to all by general festivity. The master and mistress, when on the plantation, always honored the parties by their attendance, and if they were favorite servants, the wedding was held in the house, and the ceremony performed by a white minister.

There was a beautiful, dense, evergreen grove on Mr. A.’s plantation, which was used as the burial-ground of the negroes. The funerals were always at night, and were described to be very quaint and picturesque. All the negroes, not only of the plantation, but of the neighborhood, marching in procession from the cabin of the deceased person to the grave, by the way of the mansion, carrying light-wood torches and singing hymns in their sad, wailing, chanting manner. At the head of each recent grave a wooden post was placed.

I described a negro funeral that I witnessed in Richmond, Va. In Charleston I saw one of a very different character. Those in attendance were mainly women, and they all proceeded on foot to the grave, following the corpse, carried in a hearse. The exercises were simple and decorous, after the form used in the Presbyterian Church, and were conducted by a well-dressed and gentlemanly-looking elderly negro. The women were generally dressed in white, and wore bonnets which were temporarily covered with a kind of hood, made of dark cambric. There was no show whatever of feeling, emotion, or excitement. The grave was filled by the negroes before the crowd, which was quite large, dispersed. Only one white man, probably the undertaker, was in attendance. The burying-ground was a rough “vacant lot” in the midst of the town. The only monuments were a few wooden posts, and one small marble tablet with a simple inscription.

In a ride in the suburbs of Savannah, I accidentally came upon a piece of ground partially enclosed by a dilapidated paling, which I found to be a large negro grave-yard. There were many monuments; some were billets of wood, others of brick and marble, and some of plank cut in the ordinary form of tombstones. Many family-lots were enclosed with railings, and a few flowers or evergreen shrubs had sometimes been planted on the graves; but these were [195] generally broken down and withered, and the ground was overgrown with weeds and briars. The whole was shaded by an old pine grove. Riding in, I fastened my horse to a tree, and spent some time in examining the inscriptions, the greater number of which were evidently painted by self-taught negroes, and were curiously illustrative both of their condition and character. I transcribed a few of them as literally as possible.

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