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PLANTATION LIFE 
 
 BEFORE 
 
 EMANCIPATION 
 
 BY 
 
 R. Q. MALLARD. D. D., 
 
 New Orleans, La. 
 
 ( MAR 21 J8S: 
 
 RICHMOND, VA.: / ^7^^ ^ 
 
 Whittet & Shepperson, iooi Main Street. ^ 
 1892. 
 

 Copyright 
 
 BY 
 
 R. Q. Mallard, 
 1892. 
 
 Pbintkd by 
 Whittet & Sheppbbbok, 
 
 RiOHMOKD, Va. 
 
To 
 
 THE MEMORY OF 
 
 itl\nvUs Colcock 3oneSt 3D- S.t 
 
 "SVho, whetheb 
 
 HIS WoKK AS A MtS- 
 
 8IONABY TO THE BlACKS, 
 
 OB THE WiDEK INFLUENCE OF 
 
 HIS Example, and "\Vi;iting8 in 
 
 THEIR BEHALF, BE CoNSTDEKED, IS 
 
 Justly Entiti.ed to the Name of the 
 
 Apostle of the Neobo Slaves ; and of his 
 
 MANY Fellow AVoBKEiiS in the Gospel T^Iinistey 
 
 UPON the SAME FIELD, ONXY LESS CoNSriCVOrS, SeLF- 
 DKNYING AND UsEFIL ; AND OF THE HOST OF IMaSTEBS AND 
 
 Mistresses, whose Kinijness to the Bodies, anpeffobts 
 
 FOB THE Salvation of the Souls of the Subject Racf. 
 
 Pbovidentially placed ukdeb their bule and 
 
 CABE, WLLL be bead OUT, WITH THEIR NAMES, 
 
 IN THE Day WHEN "the Books shall be 
 
 OPENED," AND "GoD SHALL BRINO 
 
 EVERY WORK INTO JUDGMENT, 
 
 WITH EVERY SECRET THING, 
 
 WHETHER IT BE GOOD Oil 
 
 whether it be evil, " 
 Ihis Book is Revebently and Lovingly Dedicated. 
 
^ mov^ t0 tl\it Hcjider. 
 
 THE chapters to follow were originally given to 
 the public in the form of a series of letters, 
 under the same title, contributed to the columns of 
 The Southwestern Presbj/terian, the official organ 
 for over twenty years of the Synod of Mississippi, 
 embracing the gi'eater part of the State of the same 
 name, and the whole of Louisiana. They were sug- 
 gested by an article copied into that journal from The 
 N'ew York Evangelist, and written by a lady, a na- 
 tive of South Carolma, mamed and resident at the 
 North, in defence of Southern Christian slaveholders 
 from the aspersions of a secretary of the Northern 
 Presbyterian Freedmen's Board. 
 
 In this graceful and vigorous vindication of her 
 fellow-countiymen, quotation was made from an old 
 faded copy of a pi-inted report, made by Rev. Charles 
 Colcock Jones, to the Liberty County Georgia "As- 
 sociation for the Rehgious Instruction of the Colored 
 People." Ha^dng in the providence of God been 
 brought into intimate relations with this eminent 
 
Ti A Word to the Eeader. 
 
 servant of God, and personal acquaintance -^itli his 
 ■work, I found that by marriage I had come into 
 possession of a bound volume of pamphlets, contain- 
 iag not only the report cited, but the entii^e series, 
 thirteen in number, as well as ail his many writings 
 upon the same subject. This discovery of accessi- 
 ble and ample material for a fuller vindication of 
 the memory of our ancestors, as well as my relations 
 to the writer, as they constituted peculiar qualifica- 
 tions for, so they seemed to constitute a providential 
 call to the work. 
 
 These letters, thus prepared, met with general 
 favor among the readers of our journal, and at the 
 suggestion of white and black, and by the ad^dce of 
 prominent ministers of more than one denomination, 
 they are now published in book form and seek a 
 larger audience. 
 
 The purpose of the author has been to portray a 
 civilization now obsolete, to picture the relations of 
 mutual attachment and kindness which in the main 
 bound together master and servant, and to give this 
 and futui-e generations some correct idea of the noble 
 work done by Southern masters and mistresses of 
 all denominations for the salvation of the slave. 
 
A "WOED TO THE ElLVDER. VU 
 
 If the reader shall have half the pleasure in perus- 
 ing that the author has had in writing these letters ; 
 if they shall in any degree contribute to the restora- 
 tion of the mutual relations of kindness and confi- 
 dence characteriziug the old regime, and sorely 
 stramed, not so much by emancipation, as by the un- 
 happy events immediately succeeding it; if through 
 the blessing of him " who hath made of one blood all 
 nations of men," North and South, shall be induced 
 to join hands and hearts in generous, confiding and 
 haiTQonious co-operative work for the salvation and 
 consequent elevation of this race, dwelling with us* 
 in our common heritage, then will the author's pui- 
 pose have been fully realized, and the country will 
 have made sensible progress toward the solution of 
 the race question, and the church gratifying advance 
 in the settlement of a more interesting and impor- 
 tant problem : How shall Africa in America be won 
 for Chi-ist? 
 
 B. Q. MALLARD. 
 
 New Orleans, Louisiana, December^ 1891. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Paqk. 
 
 A WOBD TO THE ReaDEH, ...... V. 
 
 CHAPTEli I. 
 Reasons for WiaTiNG and Topics of Lettebs, , . 3 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 The Writek's Connection %vith Slavery and Slaves, . 8 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 The Old Plantation, .14 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 Occupations and Sports, ...... 20 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 The Negro— How He was Housed, Fed, Clothed, 
 
 Physicked, and Worked, ..... 29 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 The Negro— How He was GovEBNED, .... 38 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 Marriage and Family Relations, . . . .47 
 
 CHAPTER VIIL 
 "Daddy Jack. '■ — A Cubious Character, . . - . 54 
 
X Contents. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. ^AGB. 
 
 FoiiK Lore of the Negeo, ...... 62 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 Old Midway — A. Typical Church, . . . .74 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 Sacrament Sunday at Old Midway, . . . . 81 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 A Missionary to the Blacks — A Sketch of His Life, . 91 
 
 CHAPTER XIIL 
 A Missionary to the Blacks — His Labors Among Tblem, 101 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 A l^IlSSIONARY TO THE BlACKS— HiS LaBORS FOR ThEM, . Ill 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 A Missionary to the Blacks — His Labors for Them, . 121 
 
 CHAPTER XVL 
 Religious Anecdotes of the Negro, . . . .ISO 
 
 CHAPTER XVIL 
 What was done for the Negro by Other Men and 
 Women, Ministers, Churches, and Communi- 
 ties, ......... 141 
 
 CHAPTER XVIIL 
 
 The Sea -Board of South Carolina, . . . .152 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 Personal Recollections of Another Missionary to 
 
 THE Blacks, ....... 162 
 
Contents. 3d 
 
 CHAPTER XX. I*AGE 
 
 The Fiest Southeen Geneeal Assembly, . . . 172 
 
 CHAPTEE XXI. 
 
 The Fiest Geneeal Assembly and the Negko : its 
 Manieesto on the Subject to the Chuech Uni- 
 VEBSAi, ........ 183 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 The Fiest Geneeal Assembly and the Negeo — The 
 Addeess of De. Jones on the Religious Iksteuc- 
 tion op Negeoes, . . . . , .194 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 Conduct of the Negeo Dueing the Wae, . . . 208 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 Conclusion, 233 
 
PLANTATION LIFE 
 
 Before emancipation 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 REASONS FOR WRITING AND TOPICS OF 
 LETTERS. 
 
 IT was in May, 1 864, that J ohason issued his cele- 
 brated battle-order at Cass Station, on the line 
 of the Atlantic and Western railroad. Our forces 
 were in fine trim, anxious for the fray, and confident 
 oi victory. Tho expressed inability of two corps 
 commanders to hold the positions assigned them oc- 
 casioned its recall, and another move in the masterly 
 retreat, before an army almost thrice the size of the 
 Confederate force, effected in such good order that, 
 as one of the General's staff remarked, "he had not 
 left BO much as a half grindstone north of the Eto- 
 wah," a retreat, however, veiy discouraging, since it 
 involved the surrender of the mountain fastnesses, 
 ihe fall and destiiiction, by vandal torch, of Atlanta, 
 and the unobstructed march of Sherman to the sea. 
 3 
 
4 Plantation Lite 
 
 Our relief committee had gone to the front, in an- 
 ticipation of a great battle, "when, on the evening of 
 the 19th instant, we received orders to fall back 
 across the river. As the night drew on, and we 
 sought to snatch a little sleep upon boxes and bar- 
 rels, there mingled with the rumbhng of the wheels 
 the monotonous but pleasant tones of a boy's voice, 
 that of a little drummer, perched upon the roof; 
 and this was the ditty sung by him over and over 
 again, with the ceaseless cadence of pounding feet: 
 
 " In eighteen sixty-one 
 This war begun ; 
 In eighteen sixty-f or.r 
 This war will be o'er. " 
 
 The song was hirstorj^; it had neai'ly proved pro- 
 phecy. In the winter of 1864 the Confederacy was 
 almost in its death throes, and in the folloTvonof 
 spiing a handful of war-worn veterans tearfully 
 folded the Stars and Bars, and our chief yielded up 
 his knightly sword with a dignity only equalled by 
 the magnanimity of the victor. 
 
 For twelve years in succession I have had the 
 pleasure of reading the annual addresses of Colonel 
 
Before Emancipation. 6 
 
 Charles C. Jones, Jr., LL. D., President of the 
 "Confederate Survivors' Association," of Augusta, 
 Ga. I do not remember one which has not feeling 
 sketches of some dead comrades who wore the gray. 
 It reminds us of the rapidity with which the actors 
 in those scenes, already covered by the obliterating 
 waters of a quarter century, are " crossing the river," 
 we trust, "to rest in the shade of the trees." Since 
 this continent shook with the tread of armed hosts, 
 a new generation has sprung into manhood and 
 womanhood, to whom war experiences and planta- 
 tion life are onl}^ traditions. It has occurred to one 
 v/ho had attained his majority before the tocsin of 
 war summoned North and South to the field, and 
 who, from birth, was intimately associated with that 
 which was, at least, the occasion of the tremendous 
 conflict, that a short series of letters upon the topic 
 at the head of this article might not only prove 
 pleasing to those who have had similar experiences, 
 and interesting to those readers who were born 
 since, or who were too 3'oung to have any distinct 
 recollection of either war or plantation life in slavery 
 times, but would, at the same time, subserve some 
 graver and more important purposes, to be developed 
 
6 Plantation Ijife 
 
 as we proceed. We shall have occasion to picture a 
 civilization peculiar, and which can never be repeat- 
 ed in this countr3\ Perhaps it will be seen that 
 slavery, with all its confessed evils, was not "the 
 sum of villainies," as some termed it, but had its re- 
 deeming qualities; that the common relations be- 
 tween master and slave were not of tyranny on the 
 one side and of reluctant submission on the other ; 
 that our fathers, convinced that the institution was 
 not in itself immoral, but scriptm-al, angered justly, 
 and handicapped by the persistent efforts of Aboli- 
 tionists to stir the slave even to insurrection, did 
 much for the religious and mental elevation of their 
 people. 
 
 The topics, subject to modification, and contrac- 
 tion or expansion, as necessity may require or mood 
 suggest, that wiR be treated of, are : to state them 
 as they now lie in the writer's mind, such as these — 
 the writer's connection with slavery and slaves ; the 
 old plantation described ; plantation occupations and 
 sports ; houses, food, physic, work, government, and 
 family relations ; Sacrament Sunday on plantation ; 
 "Daddy Jack," a curious character; a missionary to 
 the blacks ; anecdotes, mainly religious, of the negro ; 
 
Before Emancipation. 7 
 
 -what the South did for his salvation and elevation j 
 our First General Assembly and the negro; the 
 slaves during the civil war, etc. Our letters will bo 
 brief, but, it is trusted, sufficiently full to accom- 
 plish the writer's purj)ose. May they, under God, 
 result in renewing the kindly feelings which bound 
 together the t^vo races in the olden time, somewhat 
 alienated, not simply by the results of the w^ar, but 
 by events since, which need not be named now, as 
 they are past, let us hope forever. Possibly in the 
 restoration of such feelings may lie at least an ap- 
 proximate solution of the race problem, now so 
 deeply agitating the public mind. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE WRITERS CONNECTION WITH SLA VERT 
 AND SLAVES. 
 
 IT -was my lot from infancy to mid-life to have been 
 intimately associated with that race -whose pre- 
 mature enfranchisement wrought such temporary 
 mischief in state, and whose present and future po- 
 litical and ecclesiastical status fills the hearts of 
 statesmen and Christians alike with concern. I was 
 the son of a well-to-do slaveholder, and myself, 
 although never a planter, an owner at my marriage, 
 "by the generous gift of my father, of some of his 
 trustiest and best servants, and also as trustee in my 
 wife's right, and having our o\mi servants always 
 w^ith us until emancipation. 
 
 The memories of that connection are of almost 
 unmixed pleasure. In the interests of truth and can- 
 dor, which I intend shall characterize these letters, I 
 should here remark that I saw slavery under its 
 most favorable aspects. Isly home was in Liberty 
 county, Ga., where that curse of Ireland, landlord 
 
Before Emancipation. 9 
 
 <il'senteeism^ did not exist, the planters, almost with- 
 out exception, visiting their plantations during the 
 summer at least twice a "week, and spending the 
 six months, including the winter, among them; in 
 this county, too, at the period when my recollections 
 of slavery began, our people had enjoyed for some 
 time the apostolical labors of Rev. C. C. Jones, 
 D. D., nonien claruni et venerahile. It is believed, 
 however, that my experience will be found tyx)ical of 
 the general experience ; for while the congestion of 
 the negro population in the rice and sugar districts, 
 and measurably in some parts of the cotton belt, 
 was accompanied by evils elsewhere unknown, it is 
 beheved that the great majority of this race were 
 distributed into smaller bodies, in more du-ect con- 
 tact with their masters. 
 
 As a babe, I drew a part at least of my nourish- 
 ment from the generous breasts of a colored foster 
 mother, and she and her infant son always held a 
 peculiar place in my regards. A black nurse taught 
 me, it is probable, my first steps and first words, 
 and was as proud of both performances as the 
 happy mother herself. "With little dusky playmates, 
 much of my lioliday on the old plantation in the 
 
10 Plantation Liii'E 
 
 •wdnter season was passed. Some parents were in 
 this matter more particular tlian mine. On one 
 plantation, I remember, tlie rule was that the white 
 and black children were both punished if found 
 playing together. My association with them was, I 
 admit, somewhat to the detriment of my grammar, 
 a faiilt which my schoolmaster speedily remedied, 
 but never to the damage of my morals; for be it 
 recorded, to their everlasting honor, while their 
 words were sometimes coarse, they were rarely 
 vulgar, and never profane. My experience may 
 have been exceptional, but I do not remember, aven 
 among the adults, a single profane swearer ! 
 
 With my little playmates I, as other children who 
 are constantly rehearsing the drama of life, some- 
 times played at preaching ; our pews, the leaf of a 
 door set against the palings; three shingles, con- 
 veniently arranged, my pulpit ; and a small book, 
 which I could not read, my Bible and hjonn book ; 
 if the preaching was short and incoherent, the sing- 
 ing was neither. In my case this peculiar turn was 
 not strange, for I bore the name of one of our "oas- 
 tors (the extent of the area occupied by the congre- 
 gation during summer made the seiwices of two ne- 
 
Before E:vl\ncipation. 11 
 
 cessarv^), aud ray fatlier's plantation residence being 
 next but one the nearest to the church, and he a 
 prominent officer of it, was the preacher's home. In 
 those days the old jMidway church "was known far 
 and wide ; and many is the Northern preacher visit- 
 ing the South (not to say Southern) who found a 
 warm welcome beneath the roof of our paternal man- 
 sion. Among them a frequent guest was the vener- 
 able octogenarian, Kev. Dr. McWhii-, a polished 
 Ii'ish gentleman, finished scholar and learned divine, 
 who had taught a school of which Washington was 
 a trustee, and was the minister to whom the Presi- 
 dent apologized for returning thanks in his presence, 
 replying to ]Mrs. "Washington's remark, "My dear, 
 you forget that there is a clergyman at the table;" 
 "My dear, I wished him to know that I am not a 
 graceless man." Here, too, winter after 'v\inter, was 
 entertained Rev. Dr. Ebenezer Porter, of Andover 
 Seminary, then admired all over the country, as 
 much for the soundness as the sohd attainments of 
 its learned faculty. I remember to have heard my 
 father saj' that Dr. P. was accustomed to observe 
 that he always felt like taking oH his hat in the pres- 
 
12 Plantation Life 
 
 ence of the grand old moss-covered live oaks, for 
 which that region was and is noted. 
 
 At college, to -u'hich I went with the lively sym- 
 pathy and good wishes of our people, I recall the 
 faithful service of Uncle Peter, and at the seminary 
 of Uncle Jack, not to speak of their wives. In the 
 up-country, the titles of respect which Southern 
 children were taught never to omit, were " Uncle " 
 and *•' Aunty;" in the low country it was "Daddy" 
 and "Maumma." 
 
 Coming events seem to have cast their shadows 
 before them ; for the child-preacher, when he came 
 forth from the school of the projDhets, began to 
 jDreach to negroes in earnest, in their own special 
 building (and a more appreciative and sympathizing 
 audience he never has had) ; and in the old ances- 
 tral church, in which master and sei-vant worshiped 
 together, the colored people packing the wide, deep 
 gallery, baptized from the same marble font, and 
 taking the elements of bread and wine at the same 
 time, from the silver baskets and gold-lined silver 
 goblets, the gift of deceased slave-holders to the 
 church. My first sole pastoral charge embraced a 
 colored as well as a white membership, and among 
 
Before Emancipation. 13 
 
 the former were some of mv most consistent and 
 valued members ;i.nd attentive listeners. A regular 
 Sabbath-school fur them, children and adults, was 
 taught by my young people, using Dr. C. C. Jones* 
 Catechism, a manual prepared especially for them. 
 And they also drilled them in hymns and tunes. 
 Catechumens were carefully instructed by the young 
 pastor in his own parlor, using the same manual as 
 his basis. Besides preaching to them, where com- 
 fortable accommodations w^ere provided in the com- 
 mon church, a weekly lecture, for which he made the 
 same preparation which he did for the lectiu'e to the 
 whites, was delivered to full and moot appreciative 
 congregations, in a neat church building built for 
 them by the trustees (all slave owners) of a benevo- 
 lent fund, left to the county by a deceased slave- 
 holder. 
 
 The unavoidable personal tinge given to this letter 
 claims, as its justification, the necessity of estabhsh- 
 inr,'- the competency and credibility of the witness. 
 
I 
 
 CHAPTEB III. 
 THE OLD PLANTATION, 
 
 T Was situated in rich lauds, abounding in malaria, 
 against whicli only the negro was proof. I re- 
 member an instance of a planter who had spent 
 only one night on his plantation in this region, har- 
 vesting his corn, rendered desperately sick by it; and 
 another, who lived in our village, d^dng from a high 
 grade of bilious fever thus contracted. Conse- 
 quently, the summer months were spent by the 
 white families in what was known as " summer re- 
 treats," or villages located out in the pine forests; 
 the return to the plantation was not considered safe 
 until a killing frost had fallen. 
 
 How we children watched with our keen eyes and 
 ears for the first signs w4iich nature gave of winter's 
 approach ! What joy it was to see the yellowing 
 leaves of the old china trees, which grew near the 
 academies and old I^nion church, the i:)overty of the 
 soil hastening the process; to feel the evenings 
 1^ 
 
Before Emancipation. 15 
 
 growing- cooler and cooler ; to catch the first notes of 
 "the six Tveeks' bird," 'which we implicitly believed 
 always sang just that length of time before frost; to 
 hear the woodman's axe, as he cut and split the great 
 pine logs for the orchnarily unused fire-places of the 
 summer home; and oh! the happiness to wake 
 some bright morning and find the grass in the lawn 
 all covered with mimic snow, and as we chased each 
 other around the yard to mark the vapor pour- 
 ing from our parted lips ; we children called it 
 " smoke ! " 
 
 Word is ser.t down to the plantation — and not 
 soon enough for our impatience — there come to 
 move such furniture as we carried from one home to 
 the other the double-horse wagon, and the two slow- 
 moving ox-carts. Before we can get ready to start, 
 Stingo, the old yard dog, a beast of exceeding ill- 
 temper, aggravated by age, and, I am sorry to say, 
 by the plaguing of his young master, to which his 
 churhsh disposition naturally exposed him, divining 
 the cause of the unusual sth, set out by himself, 
 and all alone made the journey of fifteen miles of 
 good road, ready on our arrival to take charge of 
 the family in their winter home. 
 
IG Plantation Life 
 
 Then tlie carriage and buggy are made ready, 
 father, and mother, and children and nurse j^acked 
 in, and we are, to our infinito delight, actually off at 
 last for our winter hohday and the nnspeakable joys 
 of plantation Hfe. On the way we halt at a clear 
 spring, bubbling up by the roadside, and lunch, al- 
 ways, among other tempting edibles, upon short- 
 ened Johnny-cake 1 I wish it were in my power to 
 give the housekeepers of our day the recipe ; I only 
 remember it was baked on a long clean board leaned 
 before a wood fire, and was ambrosia to our healthy 
 young appetites. 
 
 Resuming our journey along the broad, splendid 
 roads, worked every fall by details of plantation la- 
 borers, under white supervision, we pass the old 
 church where we shall worship anon, and of which 
 more hereafter ; drive along the wide Sunbin-y high- 
 way a half mile or more, and then turn at a right 
 angle into our avenue, lined with live oaks, leadiug 
 up to the plantation mansion. It is an unpretend- 
 ing structure, a large and roomy cottage of one and 
 a-half storey, unpainted, a chimney of brick at one 
 end, of clay at the other, a piazza running around 
 two sides, and its gable end facing the avenue. Il 
 
T3EFORE Emancipation. IT 
 
 Las only four glazed "windows, two lighting the par- 
 lor, and the other two our parents' room just oppo- 
 site, the panes small, and so imperfect that many is 
 the time that our youthful imagination occupied 
 itself, while waiting for the house-gui to kindle the 
 fire in mother's chamber, in shaping its bubbles 
 aud defects into the images of different creatures. 
 The parlor, the common li^dng room, is papered 
 with a pattern I have never seen elsewhere — a 
 curious group of figures, which I see distinctly bo- 
 fore me as I write. There is on the wide fireplace, 
 with its fender and andirons, polished until you can 
 see your face in them, a generous supply of oak and 
 rich pine, but the big door leading out upon the 
 piazza is persistently left open, I presume for venti- 
 lation, but bringing the sensations of freezing and 
 burning into startling conjunction! 
 
 The an-angement of the houses is somewhat pecu- 
 liar, but convenient, and apparently made upon the 
 principle of placing everything as far as possible 
 under the master's eye. Looking out from the front 
 door, you see on your right the smoke and meat 
 house, made of yellow clay, in which the bacon (for 
 our planter raises or purchases his hogs from his 
 
18 Plantation Life 
 
 own people) is cured and stored; on the left-hand 
 corner, and in sight, is the kitchen, where French 
 cooks are completely distanced in the production of 
 wholesome, dainty and appetizing food ; for if there 
 is any one thing for which the African female intel- 
 lect has natural genius, it is for cooldng. Just over 
 the palings of the front yard, you see the cotton 
 houses, and directly in front the horse gin, with its 
 wide branching arms carrying round and round all 
 day the noisy rattling chain which turns the hick- 
 ory rollers inside, with their lij^^s separating the little 
 black seeds from the fleecy lint, i^iling up in a grow- 
 ing bank of snow behind the screen. On the left, 
 just beyond the stile (we called it the "blocks"), 
 your eye takes in the stables and carriage-houses, 
 and still farther away, and stretching to the left and 
 in front, the single and double rows of cottages, the 
 " quarters," the homes of the laborers, with their veg- 
 etable gardens, chicken coops, pig pens, rice ricks, 
 and little store-houses. The only thing in the rear, 
 and invisible from the front door, are the rice barns 
 and winnowing house (for rice and Sea Island cotton 
 constitute about in equal parts the market croj)), and 
 the vegetable garden, stocked ^yith broad-headed 
 
Before Emancipation. 19 
 
 cabbages in ^vinter, and "with its beds of fragrant 
 chrrsanthemums and the sweetest roses I have ever 
 smelt! On every hand, the corn fields, with their 
 brown stalks, and cotton fields with their leafiess 
 black bushes, stretching away to the encircling for- 
 ests, and beyond them on the left the road leading 
 by two tall sweetgums to the rice fields, great lakes 
 now, and frequented by water fowl, and fringed with 
 the dense moss-draped cypreFS swamps. 
 
 Such is a picture of the plantation home in which 
 a large part of the sunny days of my childhood and 
 youth were spent, and in immediate contact witli the 
 African race ; and here for the present I close. 
 
CHAPTEB lY. 
 
 OCCUPATIONS AND SPORTS. 
 
 r' is not my intention to describe in this letter the 
 ordinary work of a plantation, but only the occu- 
 pations and amusements of the younger members of 
 the planter's household. 
 
 Many of these were shared by the boys and girls 
 of the family in their earlier j^ears. These were, 
 f.rst, the almost daily visits to the cotton houses, 
 where it was a pleasure to help the little slaves in 
 beating up with switches the snowy cotton, as it lay 
 Tipon the elevated scaffolding, airing in the winter's 
 Funshine; or to take hold of the crank of the whip- 
 per, which, with its long revolving shaft, with nuin- 
 erous radiating spokes, separated the dust and trash 
 from the cotton ; and then to stand by the ginner and 
 watch him, or be permitted for a few minutes our- 
 selves to feed the grooved hickory rollers, as they 
 draw in the fleecy cotton and divide the lint from the 
 seed; or to supervise the packer, as suspended in his 
 20 
 
Before Emancipation. 21 
 
 distended bag from the upper floor, vrith many a 
 grunt, he, with his heavy pestle, forces the lint into 
 the bale. Then what joy it was, in the keen winter's 
 air, to perch upon the long beam outside, and travel 
 miles and miles in a cii'cle, ever repeating itself, per- 
 mitted as a special favor, for which a plate from the 
 dinner table was exacted and willingly promised, 
 and paid ourselves to drive the team. 
 
 At another time the barn-yard would be the spe- 
 cial attraction, with its long parallel stacks of sheayes 
 of golden rice. The dirt floor is beaten hard and 
 swept clean, and the sheaves arranged upon it side 
 by side ; and now the stalwart laborers, with their 
 hickory flails, beat oii the heads of grain from the 
 yellow straw; the obliging servants make for us 
 children, or, if sufficiently skillful, we make ourselves, 
 lighter flails, and, with our shghter blows, emulate 
 in fun the heavier strokes of the men. And now the 
 grain and broken straw are taken in baskets up the 
 steps of the lofty winnowing house, which stands, 
 stilt-hke, upon its four upright posts; and as the 
 grain and beaten straw are forced through a grated 
 hole in the floor, the wind (faithfully whistled for) 
 comes and caiTies off the chaff, and the round mound 
 
22 Plantation Ijife 
 
 of rice steadily gvov.'s beneath. The rhythmical 
 beat of the numerous flails is accompanied by a reci- 
 tative and improvised song of endless proportions, 
 led by one musical voice, all joining in the chorus, 
 and can be heard a mile away, "The joy of the har- 
 vest," of ■which a Hebrew prophet speaks. 
 
 A spell of cold weather sets in, and now the well- 
 fattened hogs must be killed, dressed, and cured. 
 "We look on in the frosty air of 'the early morn, inter- 
 ested spectators, as the porkers are each dispatched 
 by one dexterous blow of the axe, and then immersed 
 in a cask of hot water to take off the hair, and aid in 
 the trjdng up of the fat into lard and "cracldings," 
 and, nothing loth, assist in the discussion at the 
 family table of the spare-ribs and sausages j then 
 there are horses to be ridden, and the difficult art 
 acquired of keej)ing one's equilibrium upon the jDer- 
 ilous edge of a frisky steed; then there are evening 
 walks with our sisters up the long oak-lined avenue, 
 and rambles through the encircling woods in pur- 
 suit of the black sloes and yellow haws and other 
 winter berries. And then in early spring the cattle, 
 turned out to graze in the fields and forests in the 
 mild Southern winters, are to bo hunted up and 
 
Before Emancipation. 23 
 
 penned, and the young calves marked and branded; 
 the latter operation perfonned by the cowherds, and 
 the former f ui'nishing ample field for the exercise of 
 bur newlj-acquired horsemanship. 
 
 As ^e grow older, our sisters and us bojs begin 
 io separate in our pursuits for the most pai-t. Now 
 comes the savage age, the period of traps and bows 
 and arrows; and many is the sparrow and robin 
 brought home to our admiring sisters as trophies of 
 our woodcraft and skillful marksmanship. From the 
 Indian's implements, we are at last promoted to 
 more civilized weapons, and actually (oh ! height of 
 a country boy's ambition!) own horse, saddle and 
 bridle, dog and gun. Many now is the gray squir- 
 rel, and long-eared rabbit, and gentle-eyed dove, and 
 plump partridge that falls under our new weapon. 
 And, grown more ambitious, bird-shot is exchanged 
 for duck and turkey-shot; and with my "man Fri- 
 day" or boy "Dick" as inseparable companion, we 
 are off for the rice-fields. In those days the teal 
 and Enghsh ducks, as we called them, abounded in 
 the two rice swamps between which the plantation 
 was situated ; and occasionally a flock of wild geese„ 
 to my intense excitement, settled down among them. 
 
24 Plantation Life 
 
 "When frightened from their feeding-grounds by the 
 passing of a wagon over the causeway bridges, or 
 the sound of a gun, the water fowl took flight for a 
 few minutes, to circle around and then to return, 
 the noise of their wings was like that of a mighty 
 rushing wind. The settlement of the Northern 
 lakes, their breeding places even before I was grown, 
 perceptibly diminished their numbers. "Well do I 
 remember the day when two fortunate successivo 
 shots brought me nine fat ducks, five of which I 
 shouldered, leaving four for my faithful companion ; 
 and it was no light task to get them home. But I 
 felt proud as Julius Csesar decreed by the Eoman 
 Senate a triumph, and coming home from the wars 
 of Gaul or of Britain, when I passed the groups of 
 servants about the cotton-houses and listened to 
 their admiring comments. To secure these trophies 
 I did not scruple, with my little comrade, to crush, 
 barefooted and barelegged, a whole day through the 
 thin ice which crusted the broad, overflowed rice- 
 fields, and suffered no harm. I was never tyranni- 
 cal, as Southern boys generally were not, but some- 
 times a little positive and threatening in making 
 Dick divest himself of pants, that he might cross 
 
Before Emancipation, 25 
 
 sorie dee-p canal, wliicli his young master did not 
 care, "witli liis roUed-up trousers, to attempt, to get 
 his dead birds. Later on, duck and turkey-shot 
 gave -^ay to buckshot; but of that I ^^ill not now 
 T?rite, because it would take me into manhood. 
 
 Often I made adventurous voyages in the lake- 
 like rice fields in my bateau, v.ith its extemporized 
 sail, and prudently provisioned with sweet potatoes 
 roasted in a fire built on shore. Coffin shaj)ed, 
 when it was building in the street of "the quarters," 
 the seiwants, as they came in from their work, with 
 concern depicted in their faces, would ask, "^'ho 
 is dead?" leading some of the family to predict that 
 it would prove my coffin, which prediction, hke many 
 others as human, has proven false. 
 
 Then, when the dog-wood flower whitened the for- 
 ests, came the spring fishing. Our rice fields were 
 drained by wide, deep canals, stocked with various 
 kinds of fresh water fish — trouts, mud-fish, cats, 
 eels, chubs, perch (I give our names without vouch- 
 ing for their correctness). " Golden's drain" ("dreen" 
 my black companions termed it,) was the canal 
 oftenest visited, and with best results. I can re- 
 member to this day the veiy appearance of the dif- 
 
26 PlayStation Life 
 
 ferent j)laces where we broke oiu* way tlirougli the 
 sea myrtles to get the water's edge ; and some posi- 
 tions inconyeniently near the holes in the bank of 
 two big alligators, male and female, which we had 
 named. 
 
 Later in the season, as the waters became low, our 
 negro men and boys ^'churned" for fish — a sj:)ort 
 in which I sometimes shared. The operation was 
 this: A flour barrel was taken, both ends knocked 
 out, and the hoops secured ; then a half-dozen boys 
 ind men, thus provided, w^ould range themselves 
 across a canal, and moving in concert, would each 
 bring his barrel at intervals down to the bottom. 
 The moment a fish was covered, its presence 
 was betrayed by its beating against the staves in its 
 efforts to escape ; when the fisherman instantly cov- 
 ered his barrel with his breast, and w ith his hands 
 speedily capturing it, threw it to the Httle negroes 
 on the dam, who quickly strung it upon stripped 
 branches of the sea myrtle tree. How they man- 
 a^^ed to handle the cat fish, with its sharp and 
 poisonous spines, I cannot imagine ; perhaps their 
 horny hands were impervious to them, as they were 
 to the live coals of fire which I have often seen them 
 
Betoee Em.'^nctpation. 27 
 
 transfer -with naked fingers from liearlli to pipe; 
 sometimes (an experience of -wliicli I have a lively 
 personal recollection) a moccasin was covered, and 
 •then there was a rash to tlie shore, minus barrel. 
 
 As the rice fields later in the spring di'ied u]) in 
 the heat, they left exposed the holes of the alliga- 
 tors — an animal which, more frequently than vre 
 liked, fed on uncured bacon, and occasionally docked, 
 without impro^dng her beauty, the tail of some 
 thirsty cow. And now a long, lithe, slender pole is 
 cut, its larger end furnished with a stout iron hook, 
 and a negro man wading up to his waist in the wa- 
 ter, feels -^ith it until he touches the living occu- 
 pant, when with a dexterous torn he fastens the hook 
 under the alligator's foreleg, and now commences 
 the tug of war ! He is by main force dragged (in 
 which operation other willing hands join) to the 
 land, the pole allowed to turn \xith his revolutions 
 as he comes to the shore, hissing like a goose. By 
 a well-aimed blow of the axe, his head, with its for- 
 midable armature of teeth, is severed from its dan- 
 gerous muscle, and his almost equally formidable 
 weapon, his sweex^ing tail, is paralyzed. Sometimes, 
 when unable to find the sauiian, the pole is with- 
 
28 Plantation Lifk. 
 
 drawn ; there are marks of teeth in startling prox- 
 imity to the portion grasped by human hands! 
 Well do I remember that, when somewhat callow, I 
 •would occasionally take to a tree until assured that 
 the decapitation was a success ! 
 
 It is easy to see how such a life, in ^^ hich white 
 and black, with the due subordination of master and 
 servant preserved, shared the same sports, contribu- 
 ted to the familiar and affectionate relations which 
 BO notoriously from childhood bound master and 
 servant together; and how it gave the Southern 
 youth a skill with fire-arms rarely attained in a 
 shooting gallery, and a free, firm, and graceful seat 
 in the saddle, seldom if ever acquired in the saw- 
 dust arena of a riding school ; and how it developed 
 a splendid physical manhood, unknown to the dwell- 
 ers in the cities, with their billiard table exercise 
 and theatrical diversions, and what is at best but a 
 poor substitute for outdoor sports, the gymnasium. 
 
CHAPTER Y. 
 
 THE NEGRO— HOW HE WAS HOUSED, EET), 
 CLOTHED, PHYSICKED, AND WORKED. 
 
 IN this letter I shall speak, not Tsithout passing 
 allusions to practices prevailing elsewhere, mainly 
 of the general custom, with regard to the above mat- 
 ters, in my own native county; convinced that the 
 representation will be recognized by the well-in- 
 formed as a fair average picture of the conduct of 
 the entire South. 
 
 The houses on some plantations were constructed 
 of saw^ed lumber, furnished by the adjacent water- 
 mills, or cut out by the negro sawyers laboriously, 
 and not veiy accurately, with the whip-saw, worked 
 in pen or pit, and making a tolerably fair joint pos- 
 sible. On our plantation they were, for the most 
 part, covered with a weather-boarding of clapboards, 
 split along the grain with what w^as called a frow, 
 and from short cuts of cypress logs, and not admit- 
 ting of a very close fitting. The houses were never 
 
 lined within, so that only the thickness of a single 
 29 
 
30 Plantation Life 
 
 board kept out the winter's air and cold. Usually 
 the house had two or more unglazed windows, and 
 a front and a back door, and was warmed by a clay 
 chimney, with a wdde hearth, abundantly supplied 
 with oak and pine. You entered first the common 
 living room. Separated from it, and with its door, 
 was the family bedroom ; and if the children were 
 lialf-gTown, 3'ou would find frequently one or two 
 *' shed-rooms," or leantos^ in the rear, furnishing all 
 proper privacy. Tlie furnishing of the servants' 
 home was primitive. There were a few benches and 
 a rude rocker, all of home manufacture ; shelves in 
 the corner, containing neatly scrubbed pails and 
 *'piggins," made by the plantation coopers of alter- 
 nate strips of redolent white cypress and fragrant 
 red cedar, bright tins and white and colored plates, 
 with the never absent long-necked gourd di^Dper, and 
 beneath them the ovens, pots and skillets, the simple 
 but most efficient paraphernalia of the mother cook. 
 The bedroom had a few boxes, containing the 
 simple finery and Sunday clothes of the family ; the 
 week-day garments hung upon a string stretched 
 across the corner ; the bedstead consisted of a few 
 boards nailed across a pair of trestles, and covered 
 
Before Emancipation. 31 
 
 ^sitli llie soft black moss so abundantly yielded by 
 tlie adjacent swamps, and quite a number of good 
 warm blankets, in which the sleepers, oblivious of 
 change of seasons, would wrap themselyes up, until 
 not a square inch of sable skin was exposed. 
 
 TheirybocZwas mainly maize, which, where a public 
 mill was handy, was ground for them ; on my father's 
 place they ground it themselves on the common 
 hand mill; also the sweet potato, abounding in 
 starch, the main nutritious ingredient in all food 
 products ; and easily and quickly cooked in the ashes, 
 or baked before a fire. The weekly allowance for a 
 " hand " or full worker was, I believe, a peck of corn, 
 and four quarts additional for eveiy child; and a 
 half bushel of sweet potatoes to each adult, and to 
 each child in same proportion. This weekly fare the 
 year round was with us supplemented, in the season 
 when the work was unusually he aw, by rations of 
 molasses, or bacon, or salt fish; and an occasional 
 beef. To this, thrifty eei'A'ants added rice, of which 
 they were as fond as the Chinese, and which they cul- 
 tivated themselves in patches allotted them, and with 
 seed and time afforded by their masters ; and chickens 
 and bacon of their own raising and cuiing, and fish 
 
32 Plantation Life 
 
 of their own catcliing. So abundant were tlie rations 
 of corn, tliat at the end of a week the careful house- 
 holder sent quite a bag of it to the store to be ex- 
 changed for caHco or tobacco ! 
 
 As to their clothing, two good strong suits were 
 given every year — in the summer, white Osnaburgs ; 
 in the v.inter, a kind of jeans, partly cotton and 
 mostly wool, and stout brogans. The clothes were 
 often cut and made up "in the big house " by negro 
 seamstresses. The house-women were clad in a very 
 neat fabric called "linsey woolsey," and with the 
 house-boys fell heirs to the half-worn garments of 
 the young masters and mistresses. A good warm 
 blanket was given each worker every alternate year ; 
 BO that a little care accumulated an abundance of 
 •warm bed covering. 
 
 As for their physicing, this was largel}', and not 
 unskillfully, done by the i^lanter himself. In each 
 plantation library was a book of medicine — my 
 father's, I remember, was *' Swell's Practice" — 
 books written without technical phrases, clearly de- 
 scribing, in the language of the common people, dis- 
 eases and their remedies. As the maladies of the 
 African, Vvith his simple civilization, were rarely ob- 
 
Before EMA^'CIPATION. 33 
 
 Bcui'e, many planters acquired a very considerable 
 skill in diagnosing and prescribing; and probably 
 killed no more of their patients than the 3'oung 
 M. D. graduate is said to kill, just in getting his hand 
 in ! A big Jug of castor oil was always on hand, but 
 it had to be kept under lock and key, so fond was 
 the darkey of dosing himself for any and every ail- 
 ment with that antiquated and heroic remedy; an- 
 other thing he had the utmost faith in was the lan- 
 cet ; for, according to his simple therapeutics, it let 
 the bad blood out; just as rubbing a sprained ankle 
 with cold water toward the toes would send the in- 
 flammation from their tips into nothingness ! "WTien 
 a case, however, was too serious or complicated, or 
 obscure, for the planter's knowledge or skill, or ob- 
 stinately refused to j-ield to the few remedies of his 
 materia medlca, Tom or Jerry was mounted on a 
 swift horse and sent post haste for the doctor, five 
 or ten miles away ! "WTienever we met a negro rid- 
 ing furiously, we always divined, "Going for the 
 doctor/' and were seldom wrong. He only checked 
 up his foaming steed long enough to confirm our 
 surmise, for it was his peculiar joy to tell the news, 
 especially if bad. The doctor, it must be admitted, 
 
34: Plantation Life 
 
 had but a poor chance either to cure or at his leisure 
 to run up a bill, and this practice of only sending for 
 his services in desperate cases dej^ressed patient and 
 doctor and nurses, and contributed sometimes to a 
 fatal result. " To send for the doctor " was, in planta- 
 tion belief, to give up the case ; and the doctor's pa- 
 tients recovered only by a special miracle ; but when 
 they did not, they at least died secundeni aritm. 
 
 As for their work, they were never called out in 
 the rain, and open sheds were always provided in 
 distant fields against thunder showers. In some 
 parts of the South they were, wdth an interval of a 
 noon day rest of several liours, in the field from 
 "sun up" to "sun down," but in all such instances 
 their food was cooked for them, and they were gen- 
 erously fed upon full rations of bacon. AVith us the 
 work was, in the main, extremely light. It was the 
 duty of the men to split the pine rails with which 
 the plantation was enclosed, to clear the forest from 
 the "new ground" prepared for tillage. The wo- 
 men and the "thrash gang" — i. €., the half grown 
 boys and girls — made up the fences, the men com- 
 monly drove the plow, the women never handled 
 anything heavier than the hoe ; in the harvest both 
 
Before Emancipation. 35 
 
 ■used the sickle , the men threshed the rice and trod 
 the cotton foot-gin, while to the Tvomen was assigned 
 the easier task of sorting the lint of its specks and 
 'leaves. Our lands were light and friable and easily 
 worked, and for a large part of spring and summer 
 the hands were allotted task work ; and many is tlio 
 time I have in the spring season seen the industri- 
 ous laborer shouldering his hoe, with the sun high 
 in the sky, ready to work his own allotted patch in 
 the rice field, or to go " churning " or lounging and 
 gossiping in the village street ! 
 
 Compare the average house of the slave with the 
 one-roomed mud hovel of the Irish tiller in Boman 
 Catholic Ii'eland, with no privacy by day or night ; 
 the suitable and substantial clothing and bed cov- 
 ering supplied the slave with the scanty and some- 
 times ragged raiment of the poor in our great cities, 
 and even laborers in our factories; their big fires, 
 wood ad libitum, v/ith the miserable, smouldering 
 embers over which the poor sewing women crouch 
 shivering in Northern cities ; the excellent nursing 
 and good medical attention given the slave, with the 
 condition of many of the poor work-people, who dare 
 not, or wiU not in their pride, call in a physician, for 
 
S6 PiANTATioN Life 
 
 •wHose services tliey are unable to pay 5 compare tlie 
 hours of labor in the open air, not pushed to ex- 
 haustion and comparatively short, with the long and 
 drastic work of many artisans, against which there 
 is a constant demand for restrictive legislation ; and 
 add to this the consideration, that if the white mas- 
 ter hved in comparative luxury upon the fruit of the 
 labor of his slaves, he had all the care and fore- 
 thought and responsibihty of directing and organ- 
 izing the labor for united efficiency; in a word, that 
 he supplemented the African brawn with An- 
 glo-Saxon brain; and it wiU be perceived that no 
 laboring population in the loorld trere ever better off 
 than the Southern slaves', and that there never was 
 a falser accusation made agai?ist the Southern 
 planter than this, harped upon by abolitionists of 
 old, and repeated soniethnes by Northerrt. preachers 
 now, that ''he Icept back the hire of the laborer'* 
 The plain truth is just this, that no tillers of the 
 soil, in ancient or modern times, received such am- 
 ple compensation for their labors. He was not paid 
 down, it is true, in cash, but he was amply compen- 
 sated for his toil in free quarters, free medical at- 
 tention, free food, free firewood, free support of sick. 
 
Before Emancipation. 37 
 
 infirm, aged and young, and the free supi^lj of that 
 (organizing faculty which utihzed labor and made it 
 more productive and capable of supporting, without 
 ' the remotest fear of starvation, or even of scarcity, and 
 without appeal to pubhc charity, of entire slave com- 
 munities, often as large as that of a good-sized vil- 
 liirre of whites! 
 
CHAPTER YI. 
 
 THE NEGRO—HOW HE ^YAS GOVERNED. 
 
 IT was not unusual for defenders of slavery to 
 describe the institution as i^atriarclial ; it was 
 undoubtedly such, but with some important modifi- 
 cations. Abraham was a nomad; he had no perma- 
 nent connection with the soil, nor acquired more than 
 a transient ownership by the digging of wells for his 
 flocks ; he had not a foot of it in actual possession, al- 
 though all Canaan was, by divine gift, his, for his 
 posterity. He did not sow and reap, as did his sou 
 Isaac. He was in no sense amenable to the laws of 
 the land in which he temporarily sojourned with his 
 family and flocks. His household, composed of his 
 wives and servants " born in his house," or "bought 
 with his money," constituted an independent com- 
 monwealth, of which he was the acknowledged sole 
 and sovereign head; his will was law. On the con- 
 trary, the planter and his household were a part of 
 the State. His slaves were recognized as in measure 
 38 
 
Before Emancipation. 39 
 
 the basis of tlie electoral apportionment. Tliey were, 
 so far as capital offences were concerned, amenable 
 to the laws of the country. If a negro committed 
 murder, he was, by white and black testimony, and 
 the verdict of a white jury, condemned, and by a 
 white judge sentenced, and by a white sheriff 
 hung. But all other offences, such as are now car- 
 ried by them into a justice's court, were adjudi- 
 cated by the master, from w^hose decision there was 
 no appeal. 
 
 First, the master was the supreme authority on 
 the plantation, in all matters but those in which hu- 
 man life w^as involved. "Was a servant suspected of 
 or caught thieving, or fighting, or beating his wife, 
 he was summoned before the master, the witnesses 
 heard, and justice, without appeal to innumerable 
 authorities or the "law's delay,'* swiftly overtook the 
 offender; the invariable penalty: so many lashes, 
 according to the gravity of the offence. Over the 
 house servants, the mistress had co-ordinate author- 
 ity ; indeed, the master seldom interfered in the do- 
 mestic rule, save when called upon to assist. The 
 sons and daughters of the planter also exercised a 
 measure of authority, especially over the j'ounger 
 
40 Plantation Life 
 
 slaTes, altliougli tliej never, as a rule, were allowed 
 to punish offenders. 
 
 Next to tlie planter in authority was the overseer. 
 It was mainly upon large plantations, where the mas- 
 ter needed aid, or where the plantation was owned hy 
 an unprotected female, or where the owner was ha- 
 bitually non-resident, that this important official 
 was brought into requisition. He was usually a 
 Fmall planter, of acknowledged skiU and experience 
 and success, and ability to manage negroes. He 
 usually lived on the place, in a house provided f^r 
 him, getting a small salary in money, but allowed 
 the use of horses, servants, food, and firewood. He 
 was usually a man of family, and not infrequently 
 saved enough to become in turn an owTier of slaves 
 and plantation. Ee exercised in the master's ab- 
 sence, authority over the slaves, with plenaiy power 
 to punish offenders against plantation law and neg- 
 lect of work, and his instrument was the lash. 
 
 Next to him stood the negro driver. Dr. C. C. 
 Jones studiously avoided the use of this term, call- 
 ing that official on his plantations the "foreman;" 
 but in reality the term in Southern ears had no more 
 suggestiveness of cruelty to men than the i^hrase 
 
Before E:vl\ncipatiok. 41 
 
 *' carriage-driver " has of cruelty to animals; and 
 there "was no more abuse of power ordinarily in tlie 
 one case than in the other. The di'iver commonly 
 carried Tvhafc "was known as a "cotton planter"- — a 
 short "^"hip with heavy handle and tapering thong, 
 plaited in one piece. It was usually worn around 
 his shoulder, and w^as more a symbol of authority 
 than an instrument of ser\dce; a reminder of the 
 penalty of neglect than an implement of suffering. 
 
 Now, in regard to the actual exercise of this power 
 and authority by j)lanter, overseer and driver, we 
 hesitate not to affirm that it was, in the main, as 
 humanely administered as the imperfection of hu- 
 man nature permitted. As for the lash, it was used 
 rarely upon the bare back, or excessively; and it 
 should be remembered that it is only recently that 
 flogging with the cat-o'-nine tails has been abolished 
 in the navy. Although all intelligent slave-holders 
 agreed with Dr. Thornwell, that all that the owner 
 was entitled to was the reasonable service of the 
 slave, and control of time and person only so far as 
 was necessaiy to secure that end, there were un- 
 doubtedly masters who, at least in practice, seemed 
 to assume that they owned their bodies as well as 
 
42 Plantation Life 
 
 their service ; masters who abused their authority io 
 corrupt. I recall one instance now in the family of 
 a favorite body-servant of my father, whose wife be- 
 longed to a wicked planter, although a professor of 
 religion, in which, while only persuasion was used, 
 the planter abused his position, with the conseut of 
 parents, to the ruin of a daughter; their inseusi- 
 bihty to the sin and shame w^as to me the saddest 
 part of the business. Then there were planters who 
 were cruel. I recall in our county only two ; the one 
 a Southerner by birth. He flogged a slave to death ! 
 But the fellow-servants of his victim informed on 
 him; the body was exhumed and their statements 
 found correct, and upon their testimony and circum- 
 stantial proof he was, by a jury of indignant planters, 
 sent to the Georgia penitentiary and ineffaceably 
 branded as a felon. The other was a Northerner, 
 and I remember to have heard the remark frequently 
 made, that, while there were many honorable excejo- 
 tions, as a general rule, the Northerners made the 
 severest masters; and the explanation given was 
 that they had not grown up with and formed at- 
 tachments to the negro, and judged his capa- 
 city and energy by a white man's standard. This 
 
Before Emancipation, 43 
 
 man was a member of our ancestral churcli; ac- 
 tually had bis cook up before the Session for not 
 malting the full tale of •waffles, as I have heard my 
 father laughingly tell. He \^•as so miserly withal 
 that on more than one occasion he was known to di- 
 rect a belated traveller to the minister's house as the 
 village hotel, who, after "taking his ease at mine 
 inn," and calling for all he vranted for man and beast, 
 was, upon asking his bill next morning, astounded to 
 find how he had been duped ! He was also credited 
 with opening his ditches on Sunday in a wet spell of 
 weather — a thing unheard of in that Sabbath-ob- 
 serving community — and of rationing his servants in 
 part on sour oranges ! It was his practice to canter 
 on his horse from slave to slave and whip them in 
 the cotton rows! My father related that he once 
 came unexpectedly upon him just emerging from the 
 woods with an armful of young hickories; unable 
 to hide them, he mumbled out an apology about 
 "the aggravating character of negroes !" Well, his 
 people hilled him finally, as he deserved to be! 
 Striking him in the head with the eye of a hoe, they 
 saddled his horse, and, whipping him, sent him fly- 
 ing through the big gate and across the bridge to 
 
44: Plantation Ijife 
 
 the town ; aDcl adroitly bloodying a knot which rose 
 from one of the j^lanks, they said that he had been 
 thrown by his horse upon the bridge and instantly 
 killed. Only a quarrel among them brought the 
 killing to light a year after, when the body was 
 taken up and examined and the story found correct. 
 Several were convicted and hung. But I doubt not 
 more sympathy was felt for the slave than the mas- 
 ter. These were clearly exceptional cases, as rare, 
 and no more indicative of general treatment of slaves 
 than the conduct of the father who sat his child upon 
 a red-hot stove to help him to recite the Shorter 
 Catechism, is of the Northern Presbyterians' treat- 
 ment of their children ! 
 
 Humanity to slaves was secured by more than one 
 influence. First, the Southern planter was as kind- 
 hearted and naturally philanthropic as any class of 
 men found anywhere; then with us he was usually a 
 coUeq-e-bred man and of liberal culture. Not a few 
 of them were as noble Christian gentlemen as were 
 ever produced by any civilization ; then there was a 
 powerful pubhc sentiment, which ostracized a cruel 
 master. In addition to this, self-interest exercised a 
 powerful influence in restraining from cruel treat- 
 
Befoee Emancipation. 45 
 
 ment. Injury to the slave was pecuDiary loss. A 
 curious illustration of the potency of this principle 
 came under my observation in our civil war. Plan- 
 ters, who cheerfully surrendered their sons to the 
 army, protested against the use of their slaves in 
 the trenches ! Then, above all, there was a strong 
 attachment between the master and the servant, the 
 natural result of closest association from childhood, 
 which made cruelty foreign to the very nature of the 
 owner. 
 
 As for the overseer, instances occur to me where 
 the office was abused in both the directions just in- 
 dicated. But these, again, were exceptional. The 
 overseer usually enjoyed the protection of a family ; 
 wife and childi'en throwing around him all the re- 
 straints of home life. He did not, j^erhaps, abuse 
 his authority as a means of corruption, any more 
 than the foreman of a factory ; then, if cruel in his 
 treatment, there was always the right of aj)peal to 
 the owner. Convicted, the overseer received his 
 "walking papers," his salary in full, with notice to 
 leave as soon as he could get ready, and with a 
 damaged reputation. 
 
 As for the negro driver, much the same line of 
 
4G Plantation Lite 
 
 remark applies to liim. He was not sustained hi his 
 immorality, if he used his power to make life lAen- 
 sant, or the reverse, to the women slaves to accom- 
 plish his purposes, and if cruel he was instantly de- 
 posed. The driver, the carpenter, the carriage- 
 driver and the house sei'\^ant constituted the negro 
 aristocracy. To be cast out of that favored circle 
 of " the upper ten," was a disgrace almost more to 
 "be dreaded than death. There was all the dishonor 
 in being "broken" as a driver, as it was termed, 
 that there is in the army in being reduced to the 
 ranks ! It was by no means an unusual transaction, 
 and occurred frequently enough to exercise a whole- 
 some restraint upon the strong passions of the ne- 
 gro official. 
 
 In our next we shall treat vi the marriage and 
 family relations of the negro. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 MABBIA GE AND FAMIL Y MELA TIOJS'S. 
 
 A HIGH officer of the Nortliern Presbyterian 
 Church, Pev. Dr. Allen, Secretary of the Freed- 
 men's Committee, in his Quarter Century s JVorJc 
 Among the Freedmen, afSi-ms that 'when his church 
 undertook theii' eTangelization, "There -was not a 
 legal marriage among them, nor had been for two 
 hundred years. A breach of the seventh command- 
 ment Tvas no bar to church communion. Their re- 
 Hgion was an enthusiasm rather than a princijole, 
 the enjoyment of religious worship) depending 
 chiefly upon the degree of animal excitement pro- 
 duced. To ignore the fifth, seventh, eighth and 
 ninth commandments was not at all inconsistent 
 with theii' idea of tlie religion of Jesus." 
 
 A slander, containing in it a measure of truth, is 
 at once of the most offensive and dangerous kind. 
 By it truth is dishonored, and eiTor given what it 
 does not in itself possess — vitality. Piidoubtedly, 
 there were not in slavery times marriage* legalized 
 
48 Plantation Life 
 
 b}^ such formal documents as licenses, issued Ly 
 competent courts ; and the master had, under the 
 law, the power of separating, by sale or removal, 
 husband and wife; as this was a right supposed,. 
 whether correctly or incorrectly, to be incident to 
 ownership. In too many instances the marriage 
 relation was thus broken up, not often voluntarily, 
 but frequently providentially, by the death or bank- 
 ruptcy of the master. But I have kno^ii instances 
 in which the greatest sacrifices were made by hu- 
 mane masters to keep husband and wife together. 
 Let me give an example or two occurring under 
 my own observation. Harry Stevens was a very val- 
 uable slave, for he was a carpenter, pursuing his, 
 trade in Liberty and the adjoining counties, and" 
 paying his master a sure monthly and handsome 
 wage, while laying by something for himself and 
 family. His wife and family were freed by their 
 master and sent to Liberia. My father, in order 
 not to separate the family, sacrificed half his value, 
 or about $750 or $900, and the balance was made up 
 by contributions of neighboring slave-holders, and 
 Harry became a citizen of the free African Eepuli- 
 lic I I have known planters also to hire hands they 
 
Before Emancipation 49 
 
 did not need, in order to keep liusband and wife to- 
 gether. A service of this kind, which I had the op- 
 portunity of rendering to a favorite servant, was 
 last summer gratefully recalled to my mind by his 
 now aged widow. 
 
 The impression sought apparently to be made by 
 the statement upon which we ara animadverting is, 
 that the marriage relation among the slaves was very 
 loose and far from sacred. On the contrary-, in oar 
 county not only was it gladly celebrated by the white 
 pastor or colored minister, but, where they were 
 preferred, by negro watchmen, who were appointed 
 by the chm-ch as a kind of under-shepherds, and 
 duly authorized to solemnize marriages. "We hesi- 
 tate not to say that the mamages thus contracted 
 were, by the slaves themselves and their masters, 
 generally regarded quite as sacred as marriages sol- 
 emnized with legal license of the courts; and the 
 obligations as commonly observed as among the 
 same class anywhere. There vrere as many faithful 
 husbands and wives, we believe, as are to be found 
 among the working white population in any land. 
 
 The weddings of the house-girls were usually cel- 
 ebrated in the master's mansion — the bride decked 
 5 
 
50 Plantation Life 
 
 for the altar by tiie skillful needles and elegant taste 
 of the young mistresses of the household. Cu a 
 large sugar plantation in Louisiana, owned by a dis- 
 tinguished Bishop of the Episcopal church, Avho fell 
 near Marietta, Ga., fighting for the South, all the 
 marriages were celebrated in the great house. The 
 broad hall was decorated for the occasion with ever- 
 greens and flowers, and illuminated with many lights. 
 The honor coveted by the white children, and given 
 as the reward of good behavior, was to hold aloft the 
 silver candlesticks as the good Bishop read the mar- 
 riage service. If the couple had seriously misbe- 
 haved, they were compelled by the master to atone 
 for it by marriage; and in that case there was no dis- 
 play, but the guilty pair were summoned from the 
 fields and in their w^orking clothes, in the study, 
 without flowers or candles, were made husband and 
 "wife. 
 
 On large sugar and cotton plantations marriages 
 were not permitted with persons oft' the place. Even 
 in such cases the choice was as wide as often falls to 
 the lot of young white people living in a village com- 
 munity. In our county Ihoy were permitted to marry 
 •wherever they chose; and their almost imiversal 
 
Before Emancipation. 51 
 
 choice was of husbands and "wiyes ot a distance from 
 one to fifteen miles. 
 
 Saturday nights the roads were, in consequence, 
 $lled with men on their way to "wife house," each 
 pedestrian, or horseman, bearing in a bag his soiled 
 clothes and all the good things he could collect dur- 
 ing the week, for the delectation of his household. 
 Our cook, Maum Willoughby, used laughingly to say 
 that before greeting DubHn, her husband, she always 
 looked to see what he had brought in his bag for the 
 family. This practice, of course, was not very good 
 for family disciphne; as the father was away from 
 his child all the week, as indeed often occurs with 
 white toilers everj'w^here, and they were left entirely 
 to the management of the mother. Sometimes it 
 made trouble on the plantation when the laborer 
 came late to his Monday's task. It was, j)erhaps, 
 due to this fact that news in our county spread like a 
 praii'ie fire. The negro on his way to his family was 
 as good as what was called in the war, " the grape 
 vine telegraph." 
 
 The; negro almost invariably married, and married 
 young, for there were no costly preparations to be 
 made, no ambition of bride for a palace to be consulted. 
 
52 Plantation Life 
 
 A house was speedily erected by the plantation car- 
 penter for the newly-married pair; as for food, rai- 
 ment and medicine, that was the master's concern. I 
 remember now but two negro bachelors, and I believe 
 they only remained in single blessedness for a season. 
 Of course, we would not hold them up as model pa- 
 rents; this they were not, and only too much disposed 
 to resort to blows and slaps in family matters. But 
 they were neither better nor worse, perhaps, than the 
 working class of any coimtry. 
 
 As for the strange intimation, that violations of the 
 seventh commandment were no bai's to chm-ch com- 
 munion in Southern churches, it is simply, so far as 
 my acquaintance with the subject warrants positive- 
 ness of statement, notoriously and injuriously false. 
 Two facts will be enough to prove this averment. In 
 our county — and I suppose it was largely true else- 
 where — the most frequent cause of suspension from 
 church fellowship, and even excommunication, was 
 offences against identically this commandment; 
 and then, farther, while here and there, especially 
 in the cities, were chui'ches composed entirely of ne- 
 groes, members and officers, such exclusive organi- 
 zations were, as a matter of policy and safety, dis- 
 
Befoee Emancipation. 63 
 
 conraged generally at the South. As a rule, the 
 churches of the South had a mixed membershijD, 
 Tshite and black ; and if they had a negro preacher, 
 he was usually under the control of the white pas- 
 tor. To insinuate, then, that violations of the seventh 
 commandment were, in the South, in slaveiy times, 
 no bars to church communion, is to charge the white 
 Christians of that section with a criminal complicity, 
 which only a complete array of well-attested facts 
 ran redeem the author of the Hbel from the accusa- 
 tion of a wilful bearing of false witness against his 
 neighbor. (Ex. xx. IG.) 
 
I 
 
 CHAPTER YIII. 
 
 ' DADDY JACK."— A CURIOUS CRARAOTEB. 
 
 WISH I had the genius of a Dickens, so skillful 
 in portray in fj life among the lowly, that I might 
 do justice to the odd creature whose name heads 
 this letter. I suppose that he must have been born 
 (most people are), although I do not remember 
 having ever heard of his parents. Kindred he 
 seemed to have none — neither brother nor sister, 
 uncle, aunt, nor cousin ; but he was one all to him- 
 self. A glance at his face would have convinced 
 you that if ever the slightest strain of white blood 
 mingled with the African current, it must have 
 effected a junction with it before the confusion of 
 tongues at Eabel, when, as some ethnologists sup- 
 pose, a diversity of races w\as miraculoush^ pro- 
 duced. "When I first recollect him, he had attr.ined 
 to middle life. 
 
 "Daddy" — the title of respect low-country chil- 
 dren of Georgia were taught to give every elderly 
 54 
 
Before Emancipation. 55 
 
 man servant — " Daddy Jack " was a queer negro. 
 For example, he was mostly a bachelor. Single 
 blessedness was so uncommon among the slaves, 
 and for a reason akeady mentioned — the absolute 
 easiness and certainty of the support of a family — • 
 that I now recall but two bachelors in my large ac- 
 quaintance among them ; and one of these, I learned 
 last summer in a visit to my native county, had 
 finally sm-rendered to the charms of the other sex, 
 and, I beheve, died in the yoke. Daddy Jack was a 
 Benedict once, and for a short time. How it hap- 
 pened I am not able to say; whether it was leap- 
 year or not I am not advised; but "Maum Nanny," 
 a widow, ensnared him. My impression is she did 
 most, if not all, of the courting, and the all -prevail- 
 ing argument was her ability to cook a nice pot of 
 hominy, or, better still, a savory mess of rice, and. 
 skillfully to bake a hoe cake ! 
 
 Theii' honeymoon must have been a tempestuous 
 one, for, as the negroes were accustomed to express 
 it, "they divided blankets," perhajDS, before the 
 next " full of the moon." Nor was this to be won- 
 dered at, for he was, hke Eip Van Winkle, a shift- 
 less, good-natured fellow; but, unlike him, full o£ 
 
i>6 Plantation Lite 
 
 oddities that did not minister to a wife's comfort. 
 He was at once the idlest and the most industrious 
 slave on the plantation ; indolent where his own in- 
 terests were concerned, active where his master's 
 were affected. 
 
 I recall now the report of one of my dusky play- 
 mates, of what he had just seen and heard, and in 
 his lingo: " As I bin gwine long de street, and pass 
 Buh Jack house, I yeddy somebody duh whistle, and 
 I look in de door and I see Buh Jack a sitten on de 
 jice and pullin' down de shingles to make fire wid!" 
 
 Most of our readers have heard of the Arkansas 
 traveller, who, accosting a man playing on his fiddle 
 beside the door of his ruined cabin, with the ques- 
 tion, "Friend, why don't you mend your roof?" re- 
 ceives (the bow suspended only for a minute for the 
 purpose) this answer: "When the sun shines, I don't 
 need to, and when it rains I can't." Daddy Jack 
 made the leaks with his own hand, and ran the risk 
 of a wetting to insure a warming! From the same 
 authority, I also learned that a straw hat which my 
 father had given him had been used by the improv- 
 ident fellow in kindling the fire. 
 
 My father had a great fondness for him, and gave 
 
Before Emancipation. 57 
 
 him two suits of clothing where the rest received one ; 
 aud a, blanket every year, instead, as was common, 
 every alternate year; but as he was unaccustomed to 
 the use of thimble and needle, and generally had no 
 wife or sister to mend for him, his clothing was not 
 always presentable ; his newest blanket was speedily 
 in holes from a habit he had. In his room (parlor, 
 chamber, and kitchen, all in one), I do not remember 
 to have seen any sleeping accommodations. I doubt 
 if he ever undressed and went regularly to bed; his 
 habit was to rake aside the fire coals and then spread 
 his blanket upon the ashes of the hearth, where he 
 could feel its grateful warmth. "Whether he tempor- 
 arily altered his sleeping habits upon the advent of 
 his bride, we cannot say, but think it doubtful. 
 
 I have read of some race that, by a singular incon- 
 sistency, are nice about their persons, but not cleanly 
 about their clothing. Oui' friend, perhaps, never 
 washed his garments, and he had no female friend 
 to do it for him, but he was a diligent bather. At 
 midnight, in mid winter, he would divest himself of 
 all his clothing, and plunge into the "calf -hole," an 
 excavation made to contain water for the j'ounger 
 cattle. 
 
58 Plantation Life 
 
 Almost too idle to cook his own food, he would, as 
 my plaviuates laughingly said, "work all day for one 
 spoonful of hominy!" I have often heard him at 
 the hand-mill long before I, an early riser, was up, 
 grinding corn for some trifling reward. 
 
 My father gave him, as he did the rest of the 
 people, a piece of good land to cultivate in rice, of 
 which he was as fond as any Chinaman, and pro- 
 vided the seed ; well, he had to order the driver to 
 flog him to make him turn up the soil ; and then he 
 defeated the master's kind design by beating out 
 the rice and planting his plot with the chaff. 
 
 I never knew him to be sick for a da}^ and he was 
 never behind-hand in his tasks, and never punished 
 for idleness where his master's work was concerned 
 
 With all, Daddy Jack was a professing Christian, 
 and called himself a Presbyterian; but, as hke as 
 not, he had not the first conception what the word 
 meant, except that it signalized the fact that he 
 once "jined" Midway Church, and not Newport, 
 the Baptist, and had been sprinkled and not dipped. 
 He was, no doubt, regular in attendance upon planta- 
 tion prayers, and sung loudly, when not asleep, and 
 Bometimes when he was; and was always in his place 
 
Befoee Emancipation. 59 
 
 at church, especially " Sacrament Sunday." Daddy 
 Jack had a profound conviction of the reality of both 
 heaven and helL He was very sure two people of 
 his acquaintance were bound for the better of the 
 two— "Old Miss and Mass William." "He knew 
 their calling and election" by this token, the gen- 
 erous plates of victuals they were accustomed to 
 send the faithful servant from their tables. Per- 
 haps he had scriptural ground for this persuasion ; 
 for was he not one of the "little ones" to whom 
 " the cup of cold water," or its more valued cup of 
 hot coffee, "was given in the name of a disciple," and 
 one of the hungry brethren whom they had fed and 
 concerning whom the Master would say, "Inas- 
 much as ye have done it unto one of the least of 
 these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." 
 
 The death of my honored parents — the one scarce- 
 ly disturbed in her last hours by the guns of Fort 
 Sumter; the other, after a few weeks, on the next 
 national anniversary, following the companion of 
 fifty years' happy wedded life into the Beyond — 
 caused a division of property, and Daddy Jack 
 passed to one of my married sisters in the same 
 count}'. 
 
GO Plantation Life 
 
 The war went on, and I removed to a distant part 
 of the State, and after it to Louisiana, and so I lost 
 sight of Daddy Jack for a time, but I hope some day 
 to meet the dear old shiftless, good-natured, harm- 
 less fellow in the better land, where all that was 
 defective in his organization and character will have 
 been removed. 
 
 Recently I heard a colored bishop of the Metho- 
 dist Church exclaim, in an earnest address: " Some 
 ask, *will we have the same color in heaven we 
 have had on earth ? ' This I do not care to know ; 
 all I wish is to make sure of getting there, and not 
 being barely saved, but going 'sweeping through 
 the gates.' " 
 
 We cannot tell what changes will be effected at 
 the resurrection in the bodies of the saved ; but 
 some of the whitest souls I have ever known dwelt 
 in the blackest of skins ! Perhaps, and if some com- 
 mentators are correct, certainly, if color, as well as 
 servitude, was a part of the cm'se denounced upon 
 Canaan for the sin of Ham, it will be changed. But 
 this we do know, that nothing vnll sever the chain 
 of holy love which in heaven will forever bind heart 
 to heart, and all to the God of love; for hear the 
 
Before Esiancipation. 61 
 
 beloved John: "After this I beheld, and lo! a great 
 multitude, whom no man could number, of all na- 
 tions and kindreds and tongues, stood before the 
 throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white 
 robes, and x)^lms in their hands." And to him the 
 angel makes answer concerning them: "These are 
 they which came out of great tribulation, and have 
 washed their robes and made them white in the 
 blood of the Lamb." 
 
CHAPTEB iX. 
 FOLK LORE OF THE NEGRO. 
 
 FOLK lore, transmitted orally from sire to son, 
 constituted the only literature of the negro 
 slave, who, as a rule, was unacquainted with the 
 alphabet of his master. 
 
 Here I hope I may be permitted, in accorrl.mce 
 with the general spirit and tenor of these letters, 
 which are designedly and largely the testimony of 
 one who narrates what he has seen and heard, to 
 recall some childhood experiences. Before we were 
 considered old enough to attend evening religious 
 services, we childi-en were left at home in charge of 
 the house servants, who were accustomed to enter- 
 tain us by the relation of negro fables. 
 
 Not a few Southern writers, notably our own 
 Buth McEnery Stuart, have, in the field of fiction, 
 correctly portrayed both negro character and dia- 
 lect; the author named, with a pathos and sympa- 
 thy with her lowly subjects, which often exacts from 
 62 
 
Plantation Life. G.] 
 
 those who knew the negro before emancipation the 
 involuntary tribute of tears ; but only two of them 
 have wrought in the rich field of the negro folk 
 lore — Joel Chandler Harris and Charles C. Jones, 
 Jr. The fables related by these last mentioned 
 writers were, in the main, those recounted at the 
 planter's fireside to the never weary youthful audi- 
 tors. "With Joel Chandler Harris's recitals, the 
 thousands of the readers of tlie Century have been 
 made familiar in the narratives of " Uncle Eemus ; " 
 not so many have perused the account of them in a 
 little book from the press of Houghton, Mifflin & 
 Co., entitled, ''Negro Myths from the Georgia 
 Coast, told in the vernacular'' by Charles C. Jones, 
 Jr., LL. D. Eeared in the same community with 
 the latter author, I desire to testify to its literal ac- 
 curacy in story and dialect. There is not a*particle 
 of fiction in either. I learned from him that they 
 were taken down from the Hps of old negroes in 
 Liberty county, Ga. The dedication of this little 
 volume is characteristic, but will be no surprise to 
 those who had any knowledge of domestic ser- 
 vice in the South before emancipation : " In memory 
 of Monte Video Plantation, and of the family ser- 
 
64 Plantation Life 
 
 vants, whose fidelity and affection contributed so- 
 materially to its comfort and happiness." 
 
 Let me again bear my testimony as one who was, 
 by marriage, a frequent visitor, and for weeks at 
 a time, a fortunate resident beneath the roof which 
 sheltered the " Apostle to the blacks/' and the au- 
 thor who, as his eldest born, bears his father's hon- 
 ored name, in one of those typical Southern homes, 
 in which pohsh and culture were combined with 
 piety, to the fact that these family servants were all 
 that the dedication of their once young master por- 
 trays them to have been. 
 
 Between these stories of two authors, there is, as 
 might have been expected, some sameness, as they 
 were conscientious workers in the same general 
 field; but a perceptible variation in their versions 
 and dialect, due to the fact that they wrought in 
 different parts of it — Mr. Harris giving the dialect 
 and folk lore of the negroes of middle Georgia, and 
 Mr. Jones those of the negroes of the coasts of 
 Georgia and of South Carolina. 
 
 As the seaboard was first settled and supphed 
 with African labor, it is evident that the fables pre- 
 served and recorded by the latter author have tho 
 
Before Emancipation. 65 
 
 preference as the originals. I have, in my partial 
 investigations, been astonished to find how far these 
 fables have spread into the interior, and how, with 
 natural and, in some instances, most amusing varia- 
 tions, they have been transmitted by tradition with 
 substantial correctness. President George J. Eamsey, 
 of Silliman Collegiate Institute, Clinton, La., tells me 
 tliat in the last years of the war, he, as a cliild, heard 
 ''Uncle Eemus'"' fables ia East Vii'ginia; and our 
 servant man, who was a Federal soldier in the war, 
 gives me substantially the story of the Tar Baby at 
 the Well, as told in Kegro Myths, but with a laugh- 
 able variation in its ending — perhaps a Louisiana 
 addition. 
 
 I will now, from the fifty-seven originals col- 
 lected by Charles C. Jones, Jr., give two speci- 
 mens : 
 
 BuH Squirle and Euh Fox. 
 
 Buh Squirle bin berry busy duh gedder hickry 
 nut on de groun fuhpit away fuh feed heself and eh 
 fambly der winter time. Buh Fox bin er watch um, 
 and befo Buh Squirle shum, eh slip up an graff um. 
 Buh Squirle eh dat skaid eh trimble all ober, an eh 
 
€6 Plantation Lii e 
 
 bague Bull Fox let urn go. Buh Fox tell uin, say, 
 eh bin er try full ketcli em long time, but be bab 
 sicb sharpe yeje, an keen yez, an spry leg, eh man- 
 age f ub dodge um ; an now wen be got um at las, eb 
 mean to fiib kill um an eat um. Wen Bub Squirle 
 find out dat Bub Fox yent bin gwine pity um an tun 
 um loose, but dat eb fix fub kiU um and eat um. Bub 
 Squirle say to Bub Fox : "Enty you know say, no- 
 body ougbt to eat eb bittle befo eb say grace ober 
 umf Bub Fox bim mek answer: *'Dat so;" and 
 wid dat, eb pit Bub Squirle een front er um, an be 
 f iiil on be knee, an kibber eb yeye wid eb ban, an eb 
 tun cen fub say grace. 
 
 While Bub Fox bin do dis. Bub Squiiio manage 
 for slip way ; an wen Buh Fox open eh yeye, eh see 
 Bub Squirle dub run up de tree way bim couldn't 
 tetcb bim. 
 
 Bub Fox fine eb couldn't help ebself, an eh caU 
 arter Buh Squirle, an be say: "Nummine boy, you 
 done git way now, but de nex time me clap dis ban 
 t(^pper you, me giune eat you fus and say grace arter- 
 ward." 
 
 Best plan fub er man fub mek sho er eb bittle 
 befo eh say tenkey fur um ! 
 
Before Emancipation. 67 
 
 BuH Wolf, Buh Babbit, an de Tab. Baby. 
 
 Buh Wolf and Bull Rabbit bin nabur. De dry 
 drout come. Ebrj ting stew up. Water scace. BuIi 
 WoK dig one spring full git water. Bull Babbit him 
 too lazy an too scLemy f uh wuk f uh isself. Eh pen 
 pon lib off tarruh people. Ebry day when Buh Wolf 
 yent duh watch um, eh slip to Buh Wolf spring, an 
 eh fill him calabash long water, an cah um to eh 
 house fuh cook long and fuh drink. Buh Wolf see 
 Buh Babbit track, but eh couldn't ketch um duh tief 
 de water. 
 
 One day eh meet Buh Babbit in de big road, an 
 ax um, how eh mek out fuh water. Buh Babbit &ay : 
 "Him no casion fuh hunt water; him Hb off de jew 
 on de grass." Buh Wolf quire : " Enty yuh blan tek 
 water outer my spring?" Buh Babbit say: "Me 
 yent." Buh Wolf say: "Youyis, enty me see joa 
 track ?" Buh Babbit mek answer : " Tent me gwine 
 to your spring, mus be some udder rabbit; me 
 nebber been nigh you spring; me dunno way you 
 spring day." 
 
 Buh Wolf no question iTm no more; but eh know 
 say eh bin Buh Babbit fuh true, an eh fix plan fuh 
 ketch um. 
 
68 Plantation Lite 
 
 De same ebenin, eli mek tar baby, an eh giiine an 
 set um riglit in de middle er de trail wuh lead ter de 
 Bpring an dust in front er de spring. 
 
 Soon a momin, Buh Babbit rise and tun in full 
 cook be bittle. Eh pot biggin fub bun. Buh Bab- 
 bit sav: "Hey! my pot duh bun. Lemme slip to 
 Buh Wolf spring an git some water fuh cool um." 
 So he tek eh calabash and hop off fuh de spring. 
 When eh ketch de spring, eh see de tar baby duh 
 stan dust een front er de spring. Eh stonish. 
 Eh stop. Eh come close. Eh look at um. Eh 
 wait fur um fuh move. De tar baby yent notice 
 u.m. Eh yent wink eh yeye. Eh yent say nuttin. 
 Eh yent mobe. Buh Babbit, him say : " Hey, Titer, 
 enty you gwine tan one side and lemme get some 
 water? " De tar baby no answer. Den Buh Bab- 
 bit say: "Leely gal, mobe, me tell you, so me kin 
 dip some water outer de spring long my calabash." 
 De tar baby wunt move. Buh Babbit say: "Enty 
 to know my pot duh bun? Enty you yeddy, me tell 
 you fuh mobe? You see dis han? Ef you don't go 
 long an lemme git some water, me guine slap you 
 ober ! " De tar baby stan day. Buh Babbit haul 
 off an slap um side de head. Eh f astne. Buh Bab- 
 
Before Emancipation. 69 
 
 bit try full pull eh han back, an eh saj : " "^'uh you 
 hole me ban fuh? Lemme go. Ef you don't loose 
 me, me guine box de life outer you wid dis tarrah 
 ban." De tar baby yent crack eh teet. Buh Bab- 
 bit hit him bim wid dis tarrah ban. Dat ban f astne 
 too, same luk tudder. Buh Babbit say : " Wuh you 
 up teh? Tun me loose. Ef you don't leggo me 
 right off, me guine knee you." De tar baby hole 
 um fast. Buh Babbit skade an bex too. Eh faid 
 Buh Wolf come ketch um. Wen eh fine eh can't 
 loosne eh ban, eh kick de tar baby wid eh knee. 
 Eh knee fastne. Yuh de big trouble now. Buh 
 Babbit skade den wus dan nebber. Eh try to fuh 
 skade de tar baby. Eh say: "Leely gal, you bet- 
 ter mine who j'ou fool long. Me tell you fuh de las 
 time, turn me loose ! Ef you don't loosne me ban and 
 me knee right off, we guine bust you wide open 
 wid dis head." De tar baby hole um fas. Eh yent 
 say one wud. Den Buh Babbit butt de tar baby 
 sen eh face. Eh head fastne same fashion luk eh 
 ban an eh knee. Yuh de ting now ! Po Buh Bab- 
 bit dune for ! Eh fastne all side. Eh can't pull loose. 
 Eh gib up. Eh bague. Eh cry. Eh holler. Buh 
 Wolf yeddy um. Eh run day. Eh hail Buh Bab- 
 
70 Plantation Life 
 
 bit: "Hey, Ludder, wuh de trouble? Enty you tell 
 me 3'OU no blau wisit my spring fuh git water? 
 "Who calabash dis? Wuh jou duh do you any- 
 how?" But Buh Rabbit, so condemn, he yent hab 
 one wud fuh talk. Buh Wolf him say: *' Nummine, 
 I dune ketch you dis day. I guine lick you now ! " 
 Buh Eabbit bague. Eh prommus nebber fuh trou- 
 ble Buh Wolf spring no more. Buh WoK laugh at 
 um. Den he tek an lose Buh Rabbit from de tar 
 baby, en eh tie um teh one spakleberry bush, an git 
 switch an eh lick um til eh tired. All de time Buh 
 Rabbit bin a bague an holler. Buh Wolf yent duh 
 listne ter him, but eh keep on duh pit de lick ter um. 
 At last Buh Babbitt tell Buh Wolf: "Don't lick me 
 no mo. Kill me one time. Make fire and burn me 
 up. Knock my brains out gin de tree !" Buh Wolf 
 mek answer: "Ef I bun you up, ef I knock you 
 brains out, you guine dead too quick. Me guine 
 trow you in de brier patch, so de briers can cratch 
 you Hfe out." Buh Rabbit say: "Do, Buh Wolf, 
 bun me, brake me neck, but don't trow me in de 
 brier patch. Lemme dead one time. Don't tarrify 
 me no mo." 
 
 Buh Wolf yent know wuh Buh Rabbit up teh. 
 
Before E:mancipatiox. 71 
 
 Eh tiiik ell bin tare Buh Babbit hide off. So wuh 
 eh do ? Eh loose Buh Rabbit from the spakleberry 
 bush, and eh tek um by de hine leg an eh s^wing una 
 roun, an trow um way in de tick brier patch fuh tare 
 eh hide, and scratch eh yeye out. De minnie Buh 
 Babbit drap in de brier patch, eh cock up eh tail, 
 eh jump, an holler back to Buh Wolf: "Good bye, 
 budder ! Dis de place me mammy fotch me up! " 
 and eh gone befo Buh Wolf kin ketch um. Buh 
 Babbit too schemy. 
 
 The first of these fables, in the raciness of its 
 wit, equals anything in ^sop. 
 
 To the other, our Louisiana negro man con- 
 tributes this amusing variation as its close, which 
 also illustrates the " scheminess " of Buh Babbit : 
 
 " Buh Bear comes along and finds Buh Babbit in. 
 the involuntaiy embrace of ' the leely gal,' the tar 
 baby, and inquires as follows: 'Hey! Buh Babbit, 
 wat you duh daV Says Buh Babbit, moving to 
 and fro as far as his imprisoned members will ad- 
 mit : ' Oh, I duh see-saw ; wouldn't you like to see- 
 saw, Buh Bear? ' 'Yes,' says Buh Bear, in his in- 
 nocence. ' WeU, pull me off and jou git on.' Bun 
 Babbit released, Bruin takes his place ; and while 
 
72 Plantation Life 
 
 stuck fast is taken for the thief. Buh Babbit takes 
 himself off; and Buh Wolf beats Buh Bear almost 
 to death ! " 
 
 These stories are almost entirely and purely fa- 
 bles — that is, narratives in which animals are en- 
 dowed with speech; only to a yerj limited degree 
 do human beings figure in them. They are never, 
 excejDt in the remotest sense, religious, and seldom, 
 if ever, rise above the level of the ethics of Benjamin 
 Franklin's proverbs. If any criticism is proper 
 from a moral standpoint, I should say that they, or 
 some of them, glorify cunning and falsehood at the 
 expense of honesty and truth, but in such a way 
 that we cannot but laugh at the story, while we 
 withhold our admiration from its teachings. It is 
 also a curious fact that (for what reason we are at a 
 loss to sa}") the Rabbit is the embodiment of smart- 
 ness, and not the Fox, the Anglo-Saxon's model of 
 cunning, and who, by the way, in the story quoted, 
 is outwitted by the SquiiTel. 
 
 The literary world is greatly indebted to the two 
 Georgia authors named, for rescuing from the in- 
 coming tide of oblivion, which is fast obliterating 
 all that was peculiar in the past civilization of a peo- 
 
Before Emancipation. 73 
 
 pie who were the innocent cause of the bloodiest 
 and most transforming w^ar of modern times. For, 
 strange to say, and I now speak from the testimony 
 of the author of "The Negro Myths," who foimd 
 much reluctance in communicating them, and from 
 my own observation in the case of a negro woman 
 whom I had raised, that not only are the new ideas 
 engendered by freedom supplanting this folk lore, 
 but the rehgion as now taught among them by their 
 colored preachers is setting itself against their nar- 
 ration as sinful. They did not perceptibly harm 
 the morals of Southern children, black or white, 
 and were infinitely preferable to the blood-curdling 
 ghost stories with which some nurses terrify the 
 young in our day. They are certainly, in the mat- 
 ter of injurious influence, not to be compared to the 
 dime novels, to which the almost universal acquisi- 
 tion of the art of reading gives our young Africans 
 unrestricted access. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 OLD MIDWAY— A TYPICAL CHURCH. 
 
 IT was remarked in a previous letter that the 
 Southern churches, with a few exceptions, had a 
 mixed membership ; that is, were composed of whites 
 and blacks, the whole being- under the government of 
 the former. In this respect, the Midway chui^ch was 
 a typical church. It had a membership of perhaps 
 five hundred, about three-fourths of whom were 
 negroes. 
 
 The church edifice, which was situated in Liberty, 
 one of the seaboard counties of Georgia, thirty miles 
 southwest of Savannah, was called "Midway," be- 
 cause equidistant between the two great rivers — the 
 Savannah and the Alatamaha. It was central to a. 
 very lich but malarial region, whose original growth 
 was cane, oak, hickory and cj'press. 
 
 Bearing in colonial times the name of " St. John's 
 Parish," the county received by legislative enactment, 
 shortly after the Revolution, the honorable title of 
 74 
 
Pl.vntation Life. 75 
 
 "Liberty," in commemoration of its plucky conduct 
 in taking decided measures to join the other colo- 
 nies in their revolt, when the Provincial Council of 
 Georgia had refused to unite with them! It is a 
 remarkable and noteworthy fact, that a county 
 which perhaps never had more than between two or 
 three thousand whites, had thus the honor of contri- 
 buting two signatures to that immortal document, 
 the Declaration of Independence — Ljman Hall and 
 Button Gwinnett. 
 
 Made rudely acquainted in earlier times with the 
 torch and tomahawk of the savage, it was her des- 
 tiny in the Revolution, as more recently in our civil 
 war, to know the baptism of fire and blood. Col. 
 Prevost, of the British Army, burned the rice in 
 stacks, and some of the houses of the planters, and 
 reduced to ashes the sacred edifice in which they 
 had worshiped the God of their fathers. General 
 Screven was killed not far from the church site. 
 Col. Mcintosh, one of her gallant sons, w^ho com- 
 manded the small earthen redoubt protecting her 
 flourishing little seaport of Sunbmy, at the mouth 
 of the Midway, to the demand of Col. Fuser, of 
 unconditional suiTender, retui'ned the laconic reply: 
 
?6 Plantation Lite 
 
 *' Come and take it! " — an invitation finally and pru- 
 dently declined by the commander of his Majesty's 
 forces ? When Washington visited Georgia in 1791, 
 the "Congregational Church and Society at Mid- 
 way" presented to him a patriotic address, to which 
 the Father of his Country made a fitting and hand- 
 some reply. 
 
 This early and ardent espousal of the cause of 
 the revolting colonies by the church and society of 
 Midway is, perhaps, to be accounted for by the nat- 
 urally stron gties which still bound them to New 
 England. Their ancestors came from Britain to 
 secure liberty of worship, and first settled not far 
 from w^hat is now the city of Boston, at an Indian 
 town, which, in honor of the native place of some of 
 the settlers, and of a cherished minister, they called 
 Dorchester. Sixty years afterwards their descend- 
 ants, largely influenced by religious motives, moved 
 as a church, with their pastor, Eev. Joseph Lord, a 
 Congregational minister, to South Carolina, and set- 
 tled on the Ashley river, about eighteen miles above 
 Charleston. This settlement they also called Dor- 
 chester. After a residence of more than fifty years, 
 finding their lands impoverished and insufficient for 
 
Before Emancipation. 77 
 
 themselves and descendants, and somewhat discour- 
 aged by their continued unhealthiness, they again 
 emigrated in a body, under their pastor and offi- 
 cers, to Georgia, and effected a settlement in a dis- 
 trict at the headwaters of the Midway and New- 
 port rivers, two short tide-water streams, draining 
 what is now known as Liberty county. Coming to 
 this wild country as a church, they secured from 
 the colonial government a large tract of land, com- 
 pactly situated; and by articles of dgTeement the 
 colonists pledged themselves not to ahenate any of 
 their land to outsiders, save with the unanimous 
 consent of the society. They speedily built a neat 
 church, or "meeting-house," as it is called in the 
 records, " at the cross-paths," at a point central to 
 the settlement. Their first pastor at least was a 
 Congregational minister, and the government of the 
 church somewhat peculiar. It was not purely Con- 
 gregational ; for the control of church matters w^as 
 not in the hands of the whole society, but of a ses- 
 sion, composed of all the male members, without 
 respect to age. Their officers were deacons and a 
 body of " select men " as they were called. Every 
 year the church Avent through the routine of elect- 
 
78 Plantation Life 
 
 ing a pastor. Retaining this nondescript form of 
 cliurch government down to our late war, the church 
 has from early times been served by Presbyterian 
 ministers only, and its members have always re- 
 garded themselves as Presbyterians. 
 
 Puritan by ancestry, they were a pre-eminently 
 godly people; first in their estimation was the 
 church, and next the school-house. The Sabbath 
 was strictly observed. One of the church officers 
 was also justice of the peace. Should some traveler 
 attempt to pass on the Lord's day with his wagons 
 and teams on the public highway, running by the 
 church, he was by this zealous administrator of 
 law, human and divine, peremptorily halted; but 
 then taken home with him and freely and most hos- 
 pitably entertained, he and his beasts, and on Monday 
 sent on his way rejoicing, with a hearty Godspeed ! 
 
 The Westminster Assembly's Shorter Catechism 
 was diligently taught in all its families. Celebrat- 
 ing some time before the late war its centennial, 
 this remarkable church (not to exhaust the roll-call 
 of its worthies) has furnished more than one theo- 
 logical professor, such as Eev. Drs. Thomas Gold- 
 ing and C. C. Jones; forty ministers of the gosx)el, 
 
Before Emancipation. 79 
 
 not a few of whom have been eminent for their 
 talents and piety, for example, Eev. Dr. Daniel Baker ; 
 a number of distinguished physicians and college 
 professors, not a few of them known in the scientific 
 world, as for instance. Dr. Joseph Jones, of New 
 Orleans, and the brothers Le Conte, of Cahfornia. 
 It has given eminent men to the bar, such as Judge 
 Law, late of Savannah, Col. C. C. Jones, Jr , LL. D., 
 of Augusta, Ga., and others; it has suppned teach- 
 ers by I he hundred, and has trained (only the judg- 
 ment can reveal how many) a multitude of saved 
 sinners for heaven, and by her liberal gifts of means 
 and of men, like Way and Qnarterman, to foreign 
 missions, has helped to extend the kicgdom of oui* 
 Lord and Saviour in the world. 
 
 The war wrote "Finis" on the last page of this 
 remarkable and honorable history. The changed 
 relations of master and servant have consolidated 
 the blacks in this region, and scattered the whites 
 into the remoter and healthier parts of the county. 
 A colored Presbyterian church, under a white pas- 
 tor, and in connection with the Northern Assembly, 
 are noAV the only worshipers in the sacred edifice — 
 built in 1790. It is now, by permission of the de- 
 
80 Plantation Life. 
 
 scendants of the white members, used by the ne- 
 groes, upon the easy terms of keeping in good order 
 the adjacent graveyard," in which repose the ashes 
 of four or five godly generations. It is a cMirch 
 with a finished history ! But as her sons and 
 daughters, inheriting the sterling x^i^ty of their 
 fathers, gather annually upon this hallow^ed ground 
 to lovingly commemorate the historic past, they 
 illustrate in their own persons, characters, and cele- 
 bration, the blessed fact that the gracious influences 
 set in motion by an earnest Christian chui^ch, con- 
 tinue even when, in the providence of God, it, as an 
 organization, has become extinct. 
 
 And the history of this venerable chui'ch, so 
 briefly sketched by one of her loyal and lo^dng sons, 
 it seems to him, is but a providential comment upon 
 those sweet words of Moses : " Know, therefore, 
 that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God, 
 which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that 
 love him and heep his commandments, to a thousand 
 generatio7is." (Deut. vii. 9.) 
 
 In our next letter we shall attempt to draw from 
 memory a picture of "Sacrament Sunday in old 
 Midway church." 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 SACRAMENT SUXDAT AT OLD 2riDWAY. 
 
 " rriBCE sacraments of the New Testament are Bap- 
 -L tism and the Lord's Supper," says the Shoi-ter 
 Catechism, which contains in brief the creed of this- 
 ancient church, and -which was dihgently taught 
 theu' childi'en. Both were commonly administered, 
 on communion Sabbath, for seldom did the daj 
 pass without numerous additions of white and 
 black, the latter almost invariably receiving adult 
 ba^^tism. But it is probable that it was the Sup- 
 per that was mostly in the mind of our forefathers, 
 when they called communion Sabbath, occurring- 
 four times every year, "Sacrament Simday." 
 
 It was a great day with both white and black, 
 and anticipated with joy by the pious, and interest 
 by all. There was a pecuhar quiet about the morn- 
 ing of the sacred day on the plantation. All the 
 sounds of the busy week have ceased; the noisy 
 rattle of the chain of the horse gin is silent, the 
 6 81 
 
82 Plantation Life 
 
 flails in the barnyard are still; few loud calls are 
 heard about the quarters; the negroes are seen 
 sitting on the sunny sides of their houses, mothers 
 with their children's heads in their laps, carrying 
 on in j)ublic an operation better suited for in-door 
 privacy; no sounds are heard but the lowdng of the 
 cattle, the whinnying of the horses, the crowing of 
 the cocks and cackling of the hens; the gobbling 
 of the turkeys; the shrill cries of the geese; the 
 winds appear to be asleep, and the very sunshine 
 seems to fall more gently than during the week 
 upon the widely extended fields and suiTounding 
 woods ! 
 
 Our honored father, a deacon of the church, sits 
 by the window, and with a knife carefully sharjoened 
 the day before divides upon a clean white board the 
 W'heaten loaves into little cubes of bread, and the 
 "elements," as they are called, together with the 
 genuine silver goblets and silver tankards and silver 
 baskets, previously polished by the deft hands of 
 the house girl, with the Httle contribution boxes for 
 the offering in aid of the poor, arc all safely packed 
 away in a wide basket. 
 
 Prayers and breakfast over, the family dress for 
 
Before E^l^xcipation. 83 
 
 church ; and now the order is sent out to the stable 
 boys and the carriage driver to "harness up;" and 
 directly the high-pitched carriage, with its lofty 
 driver's seat and swinging between its "C springs, 
 and the two-wheeled "top-gig" and the saddle 
 horses are brought around to the front gate; and 
 although it is scarcely more than nine o'clock, and 
 the distance "a short mile," the entire family, as 
 was the custom, ride to church. As we roll along 
 the broad highway, we find the servants clean and 
 neatly dressed and in theu' best, some on foot and 
 others in Jersey wagons, crowded to their utmost 
 capacity with little and big, and drawn by "Marsh 
 Tackey's," equal in bottom and strength to, and no 
 larger than, Texas ponies — all moving in the same 
 direction; those on foot carrying their shoes and 
 stockings in their hands, to be resumed after they 
 shall have washed in the waters at the causeway 
 near the church; for they beheve in treading the 
 Lord's courts with clean feet! Many are the kind 
 greetings and mutual inquiries after the health of 
 each other and of their famihes, exchanged by 
 whites and blacks. 
 
 We are among the first to arrive, but every 
 
84 Plantation Life 
 
 moment we hear the thunder of vehicles rJlling 
 across the half dozen bridges of the swamp cause- 
 way near at hand, and the neighing of horses ; and 
 here come the multitude, from distances of from 
 one to ten miles and more. Horses are unharnessed 
 and secured, and the worshipers fill the small 
 houses surrounding the church, or stand in the sun- 
 shine, or saunter about the grounds, or visit the 
 "graveyard." 
 
 Under my father's superintendence, the long nar- 
 row red-painted tables and benches are brought out 
 from the vestry and carried into the chm'ch, and 
 arranged in the aisle before the pulpit. The church 
 building, 40x60 feet in size, is very ancient; it 
 was built in 1790; it is the successor of one de- 
 stroyed by the British, and of a plainer and coarser 
 put up after the Revolution. It is of wood, origi- 
 nally painted red, the old color showing beneath the 
 later white, and is sumounted by a spire, with open 
 belfry and a weather vane, which used to puzzle 
 our child brains to ascertain what it was intended 
 to represent. It has five entrances, two of which 
 admit to the gallery. Passing in by the door, open- 
 ing upon the graveyard, and near which was our 
 
Before Emancipation. 85 
 
 family pew. we look up a broad aisle to the pulpit, 
 ■which, small and closely w^ ailed in, soars aloft toward 
 the ceiling, and is surmounted by a sounding board, 
 like a gigantic candle extinguisher, supported by an 
 iron rod, the possible breaking of which often 
 aroused our infantile speculations as to what, in that 
 event, would become of the preacher! It w^as 
 reached by a lofty stairway running up in front. 
 At right angles to our aisle runs another as broad, 
 connecting the two other doors. Aisles run around 
 the sides of the audience room, and the pews are so 
 arranged that everybody seems to be facing every- 
 body else! A wide gallery extends around three 
 sides, resounding often with the creaking of new 
 brogans, which the black wearers were not at all 
 disposed to suppress. The communion table and 
 benches reach the entire length of the broad aisle to 
 the pulpit ; the whole covered with the whitest and 
 finest of linen (our mother's special care). A cloth 
 of the same kind conceals from view at its head the 
 sacred symbols of oui- Lord's atoning death. There 
 is above a single row of sashed windows, out of 
 reach, and transoms over the solid shutters of the 
 windows below; but not a sign of a stove in the 
 
86 Plantation Life 
 
 church, although the air sometimes is frosty, and 
 the shut up atmosphere occasionally of the tempera- 
 ture of the vaults in the cemetery hard by. And 
 brides in the olden time, in mid-winter, came to 
 these services clad in muslin, with only the protec- 
 tion of a shawl, and in paper-soled slippers, laced 
 up the ankles. Why there never was any way of 
 warming the church I never knew, nor heard ex- 
 plained. Doubtless some caught their death of the 
 cold, which often made us children shiver and long 
 for the benediction which would dismiss us to the 
 sunny sides of the houses without or to their firea 
 within. It was not, however, ordinarily bitterly cold, 
 for the winters were for the most part mild. 
 
 All things having been prepared, there is a half- 
 hour's prayer-meeting, attended by such worship- 
 ers as have arrived early. 
 
 At eleven o'clock the regular communion service 
 begins, with an invocation from one of the pastors ; 
 for we always had two. An earnest, well-written, 
 often eloquent, always solemn, sermon is preached 
 from a manuscript, either by the venerable Eev. 
 Robert Quarterman, long since gone to his reward, 
 or his young and handsome coadjutor. Rev. I. S. K. 
 
Before Emancipation. 87 
 
 Axson, now living in Georgia, a feeble old man;* the 
 long list of names of members received at a meet- 
 ing of Session two weeks before, and " propounded '* 
 the Sunday preceding, is read again, and white and 
 black candidates advance together, the last mar- 
 shalled by the colored preacher, Toney Stevens, a 
 slave. The candidates for bajotism kneel and re- 
 ceive from the marble font, at which all, white and 
 black, infant and adult, are baptized, the sacred 
 sign of God's covenant love. The new members 
 dismissed to their seats, one of the pastors gives 
 out the hymn of institution (none other was ever 
 sung), " 'Twas on that dark, that doleful night ; '* 
 during the singing of it the communicants fill the 
 seats at the long tables and adjacent pews; the 
 non-professors among the blacks have not been ad- 
 mitted to the galleries above, as there is not room. 
 After the consecrating prayer, a tender address is 
 made, and first the bread is distributed in the same 
 silver baskets and at the same time, to all the com- 
 municants, white and black, below and above; an- 
 other address, and the wine is passed around by 
 the deacons, my venerated sire one of them. The 
 
 Since deceased. 
 
88 Plantation Lii£ 
 
 number of black communicants is so large, that 
 Tonej. Stevens comes down from the galleiy to re- 
 plenish the gold-lined silver goblets from the basket 
 of wine in bottles near the jDulpit; and as the wdne 
 is poured out, its gurgling in the solemn silence 
 smites distinctly upon our young ears, and the 
 whole house is filled with the aroma of th§ pure 
 imported Madeira. Communicants overlooked in 
 the distribution of the "elements " are asked to sig- 
 nify the fact by raising the right hand ; and if any 
 have been passed by (which never occurred), they 
 will be waited upon. We children, awed and 
 almost frightened spectators, look on from our pews 
 upon the solemnities, which suggest sad thoughts of 
 a possible separation which the judgment may, like 
 the communion table, m£ike between us and our be- 
 loved parents ! 
 
 A prayer, doxology and benediction close the sol- 
 emn and impressive service — solemn and impressive 
 it seems to me upon the review, as nowhere else. 
 
 "We refresh ourselves in the hour's intermission 
 from the abundant "cold snacks," we called them, 
 or lunches ; sun ourselves, and walk down the road 
 or in the graveyard. Immediately at the close of 
 
Before Emancipation. 89 
 
 the commmiion service a great volume of musical 
 sound, mellowed by the distance, comes up from 
 the Afi'ican church, in the edge of the forest, where 
 godly Toney Stevens, the carpenter, is about to 
 hold forth to his dusky charge. I have heard more 
 artistic singing, but never heartier or more worship- 
 ful elsewhere. 
 
 But the beU, whose iron tongue, to our young 
 imaginations, was endowed literally with speech, 
 is saying, "Come along! come along!" Another 
 sermon is preached, and horses are found harnessed 
 and vehicles ready, and the mighty congregation 
 disperse to theu* several homes. The sun is low in 
 the western horizon when we arrive at our planta- 
 tion home and sit down to a late dinner. Simday 
 clothes are folded up and put away, and the easier 
 fitting every-day garments and old shoes are, to our 
 immense relief, once more j)ut on. .A Sunday-school 
 for the young people of the plantation, conducted in 
 a spare room of our house by one of my sisters, in 
 which hymns are memorized and sung, and Dr. C. 
 C. Jones' Catechism taught, closes the public reli- 
 gious services of the day. After supper and prayers, 
 tired, we all retire to our early couches ; but refreshed 
 
90 Plantation Life. 
 
 by the rest, duties and worship of God's hallowed 
 day, and ready on the morrow to take up with new 
 courage and energy the tasks and burdens of secu- 
 lar life. 
 
 Such is a picture of a "Sacrament Sunday in old 
 Midway," as it comes back to me, like " memories 
 of joys that are departed, pleasant but mournful to 
 the soul." 
 
 By such days of resting and of holy convocation 
 were masters and servants, realizing even on earth 
 the communion of saints, fitted for the same blessed 
 home, in which multitudes of them have long since 
 met, to keep an eternal celebration of their common 
 deliverance from the bonds of sin and death and 
 hell, and investment with the spiritual liberty where- 
 with Christ maketh his people free ! 
 
 Blessed be the God of my fathers, that my early 
 life was shaped by such influences ! May they abide 
 with all the sons and daughters of old Midway for 
 ever! 
 
CHAPTER XIL 
 
 A MISSIONABT TO THE BLACKS— A SKETCH 
 OF HIS LIFE. 
 
 IRECAJjL now a quaiTel with a sister a little 
 older than myself, my constant playmate. It 
 ■was about a fancied resemblance to a preacher. She 
 had roached up her short-cut hair before the glass 
 up stairs, and asserted that she looked like Dr. Jones. 
 I, on the contrary, disputing the statement and claim- 
 ing the exclusive honor of resemblance., a contro- 
 versy arose, whose settlement, owing to the outcry 
 raised, was adjourned to our mother's room. How 
 it was finally adjusted in that child's court of final 
 appeal is not remembered now ; but the incident is 
 quoted to show in what high esteem the children of 
 the planter's household held one who gave his life 
 to the evangelization of the negro. 
 
 The first distinct remembrance of him and his of 
 me, as he told me in after years, was as follows: 
 With that mania for destroying animal life which, 
 91 
 
92 Plantation Life 
 
 at some period, seems to take possession of boys, I 
 "was engaged in the evening twilight in slaying, with 
 a long fishing pole, the bats which, in incredible 
 number, come out upon their nightly foraging ex- 
 peditions from the crevices in the frame work of the 
 horse gin. I heard a horse's footfalls and looked 
 up, and the missionary to the blacks, meeting an 
 appointment sent on to my father, rode by on his 
 way to the quarters with a pleasant greeting and 
 inquiry as to the nature of my employment; and 
 without perhaps what might have been an apposite 
 lecture upon "cruelty to animals." It was Eev, 
 Charles Colcock Jones. 
 
 Allow a loving hand to sketch briefly the life of 
 one of the noblest men God ever made by his crea- 
 tive skill and regenerating grace; and with whom, 
 to the unspeakable j^rofit of his X3iety and ministry, 
 he was permitted, as a member of his family, to be 
 associated in the forming period of both. I con- 
 dense from a full biographical sketch prepared by 
 myself, and published in The Dead of the Synod of 
 Georgia, by Rev. Dr. J. S. Wilson, then of Atlanta, 
 Ga. 
 
 Charles Colcock Jones, the son of Captain John 
 
Before Emancipation. 93 
 
 Jones aud Susannali Hyrn Jones, was born at Lib- 
 erty Hall, liis father's plantation residence, in Lib- 
 erty comity, Ga., December 20th, 1804, and T\'as 
 baptized in Midway Church by Eev. Cyrus Gilder- 
 sleeve. Upon the death of his father, while he was 
 still an infant, the sole care of him was devolved 
 upon his mother, who, of Huguenot descent, was a 
 woman of great excellence of character and sterling 
 piety, and, hke Hannah of old, consecrated her son 
 to the ministry. 
 
 Again bereaved in his fifth year, he was reared 
 by his uncle, Captain Joseph Jones, who, although 
 not at the time a professing Christian, did by the 
 orphan a father's part so nobly as to win his ever- 
 lasting gratitude, filial affection, and obedience. 
 
 Eeceiving an excellent common school education 
 at Sunbury, under a noted teacher of the day. Rev. 
 Dr. "William McWir, he, at the early age of four- 
 teen, entered and continued in a counting-room in 
 the city of Savannah six years — a business experi- 
 ence of signal service to him in after years. While 
 thus employed, the young clerk spent his evening- 
 hours in historical studies and in the mastery of 
 Edwards' abstruse treatise on " The Will." And 
 
94 Plantation Life 
 
 such was his industry, system and integrity, that at 
 the close of his novitiate he could have commanded, 
 it was said, any position in mercantile life in that 
 city. But it was not the Lord's will that the clerk 
 should become the merchant. A dangerous sick- 
 ness, bringing him to the verge of the grave, was 
 the instrument in God's hands of his awakening 
 and conversion; and at the age of seventeen he 
 connected himself with his ancestral church at Mid- 
 way, by whose pastor, Rev. Mr. Murphy, his mind 
 was first turned toward the gospel ministry. 
 
 Owing, perhaps, to the frequent visits of the ven- 
 erable Dr. Ebenezer Porter, of Andover, to his na- 
 tive county, he went North and entered himself as 
 a student in the noted Phillips Academy', and sub- 
 sequently in the Seminary in that place. Here, for the 
 first time, although now twenty years old, he took 
 in hand his Latin grammar. Three years and a 
 half were spent in his literary and theological stu- 
 dies in these famous institutions. With the presi- 
 dent. Dr. Porter, he wa?? upon the most intimate 
 terms ; and he has been heard to say that, visiting 
 him at all hours, there was not one in which, at 
 some time, he had not found this godly man upon 
 his kneea '* 
 
Before Emancipation. 95 
 
 ^om Andover lie went to Princeton, then under 
 "Drs. Archibald Alexander and Samuel Miller, and 
 after eighteen months' study in that noble school of 
 the prophets, he "was Hcensed to preach by the Pres- 
 bytery of New Brunswick. In November, 1830, he 
 was united in marriage to his cousin, Miss Mary 
 Jones, a woman of decided piety and uncommon 
 strength of intellect and character, who was always 
 in fullest sympathy with him in his intellectual pur- 
 suits and his missionary labors. Preaching for a 
 period of four or five months in his native county as 
 opportunity offered, in 1831 he became stated sup- 
 ply of the Fii'st Presbyterian Church of Savannah 
 Ga., and was, after a short term of ministerial labor, 
 installed pastor, the services, by request, being held 
 in the Independent Presbyterian church, of which 
 the noted evangehst. Dr. Daniel Baker, was then 
 pastor. After eighteen months of conscientious and 
 faithful service and laborious work in this, his first 
 and only pastoral charge, he was constrained, by a 
 sense of duty, to devote himself entirely to the great 
 work of his life, to which his attention had been 
 turned while a student in Princeton, and fuller pre- 
 paration for which led him to accept his only pas- 
 toral charge, viz., the Evangelization of the Negro. 
 
96 Plantation" Life 
 
 The same motive, as I know, led him twice to ac- 
 cept a call to the chair of Church History in Colum- 
 bia Seminary, and the important position of Secre- 
 tary of the Board of Domestic Missions of tJie 
 ante helium Presbyterian Chui'ch. 
 
 With the interruptions above mentioned, in which 
 he kept the ruling passion of his life steadily in 
 view, he devoted his entire energies of body and 
 mind, for a term of five 3-ears, to uninterrupted, 
 direct, personal labor, such as few men could or 
 would have stood, among the blacks of his native 
 county, at his own charges, and with w^onderful suc- 
 cess. The seeds of the disease which finally termi- 
 nated his earthly career were probably laid in his 
 system while laboring night and day in the malarial 
 regions of Liberty county, the destructive effect of 
 which it needed only the confinement of office 
 work in Philadelphia, and pressure of responsi- 
 bility and of wearing toil (for he was a man who 
 put his whole soul into whatever he undertook) 
 to complete. Eeluctantly resigning his position, 
 he came home to rest and recuperate. The hope of 
 ultimate recovery was not, however, destined to be 
 realized. And here beg-ins the invalid life of this^ 
 
Befoee Emancipation. 97 
 
 man of God, protracted tkrough ten years, in wliicli 
 gi-adually declining from what is known as wasting 
 palsy — a rare disease — but with intellect undimmed, 
 lie did more work with pen and tongue than many 
 a minister in full possession of health and vigor. 
 He preached constantly, sitting, when unable to 
 stand, upon a chair and a platform which he had 
 had constructed and placed in the African church at 
 Midway. Often did I hear my parents remark of 
 him and his preaching at this time : " Dr. Jones is 
 not far from heaven." It is a singular fact that 
 this incessant worker, from an injury received in 
 childhood, lived and labored with only one lung in 
 active play, occasioning often a sense of weariness 
 in the vocal organs unknown to one in perfect 
 health. 
 
 The death of this good and great man, of whose 
 labors we shall speak more particularly at another 
 time, and which occurred when he was only fifty- 
 nine, formed a fitting close to his life. 
 
 No one watched the symptoms of approaching^ 
 dinsolution with greater care and composure than 
 himseK. His son. Dr. Joseph Jones, now of New 
 Orleans, had, and still probably has, a minute his- 
 
98 Plai^tation Life 
 
 tory of the entire progress of liis disease, written 
 out by himself, and continued up to the last mouth 
 of his life. A period of unusual mortality among 
 his servants, and solicitude on their account, and his 
 anxiety about the war, it is believed, hastened his 
 end. Not many months before his death he re- 
 marked to his eldest son, Charles C. Jones, LL. D., 
 now of Augusta, Ga. : " My son, I am living in mo- 
 mentary expectation of death, but the thought of its 
 approach causes me no alarm. The frail tabernacle 
 must soon be taken down. I only wait God's time." 
 Four daj's before his departure he makes this record 
 in his joui-nal : 
 
 ^^ March 12, 1863. — Have been very weak and 
 declining smce renewal of the cold on the 1st in- 
 stant in the chui'ch (Midway). My disease appears 
 to be drawing to a conclusion. May the Lord make 
 me to say in that hour, in saving faith and love, 
 ' Lito thy hands I commit my spirit ; Thou hast re- 
 deemed me, O Lord God of truth.' (Ps. xxxi. 5.) 
 So has oui' blessed Saviour taught us by His own 
 example to do, and blessed are they who die in the 
 Lord." 
 
 On the morning of the 16th, on which he died, 
 
Before Emaijcipation. 99 
 
 having batlied and dressed liimseK, as was his Tvont, 
 with scrupulous care, he breakfasted down stairs 
 with the family, and then spent the forenoon in his 
 study up stairs, sometimes sitting up and some- 
 tunes reclining, conversing with his wife and sister, 
 but with difficulty, and suffering from restlessness 
 and debihty. Some of the sweet promises of Christ's 
 presence with His people in their j^assage through 
 the dark vaUey being repeated to him by his com- 
 panion, he sweetly replied: "In health we repeat 
 these promises, but now they are realities." She 
 again remarking, " I feel assui'ed that the Savioiu' is 
 with you," he answered: "I am nothing but a j^oor 
 sinner ; I renounce myself and all self -justification, 
 trusting only in the free, unmerited righteousness of 
 the Lord Jesus Christ." To his sons, absent in the 
 army, he sent this message : " Tell them both to 
 lead hves of godly men in Christ Jesus, in upnght- 
 ness and integrity." Upon the suggestion of his 
 wife that he should retire to his room and rest 
 awhile, he arose, and, supported on either hand by 
 her and a loved sister, he walked into the adjoining 
 chamber, playfully remarking, " How honored I am 
 in being waited upon by two ladies ! " EecHning 
 
100 Plantation Ln^E. 
 
 upon liis bed, in a few moments, without a struggle, 
 a sigli, a gasp, lie gently fell asleep in Jesus. A 
 glory almost unearthly, and which awed the very 
 servants, rested after death upon his noble coun- 
 tenance. Shortly afterwards, just as he was, in the 
 same garments he had put on in the morning, with 
 his white cravat unsoiled, and with every fold as his 
 own hands had arranged it, he was borne back to 
 his study, w^here, surrounded by the authors he had 
 so loved in life, he seemed to rest in a peaceful 
 sleep, until the third day following, when, after ap- 
 j)ropriate services, conducted by the Rev. Dr. D. L. 
 Buttolph, in Midway meeting-house^ his mortal re- 
 mains were committed to the grave, in the venerable 
 cemetery where his own parents and many genera- 
 tions of God's saints are awaiting the resurrection 
 morn. 
 
CHAPTEE XIII. 
 
 A MISSIONARY TO THE BLACKS— HIS LABORS 
 AMONG THEM, 
 
 DR. JONES' work among the slaves may be di- 
 vided into his labors among them, and his 
 labors for them ; it is proposed in this letter to 
 sketch the first. 
 
 The main field of his missionary work was what 
 was known as " the Fifteenth Company District of 
 Liberty comity, Ga." According to the census of 
 1830, just three years before his first report of his 
 labors to " The Association for the Eehgious Instruc- 
 tion of the Negroes," the whole population of the 
 county was as follows : AVhites, 1,544; blacks, 5,729 ; 
 of these, owing to the lands being suitable to the 
 production of rice and Sea Island cotton, 4,540 
 were concentrated in the district just named. 
 
 Here for five consecutive years of literally unin- 
 terrupted activity, this devoted servant of God, by 
 day and by night, in summer's heat and winter's 
 101 
 
102 Plantation Life 
 
 cold, in sunshine and storm, and at liis own charges, 
 labored for the salvation and consequent elevation 
 of the race to whose good he had consecrated his 
 splendid talents — gifts which, as they at intervals 
 called him to the highest positions in the church, 
 would have fitted him for the most important pas- 
 toral charge in the land. 
 
 He had six preaching stations, in which there was 
 either a house of worship, gladly tendered by the 
 whites, or a building put up, at his suggestion, by 
 the masters for the exclusive use of their people. 
 These were located in the most thickly settled 
 neighborhoods, and accessible not only to pedes- 
 trians, but to the children whom, with the adults, 
 he gathered into his Sunday schools. Besides these 
 regular Sabbath appointments, he held meetings 
 during the week upon the plantations, where the 
 feeble could be supplied with the word of life, and 
 he could perform pastoral work to those who were 
 too aged even to attend the neighborhood church. 
 
 I give from memory a sketch of a Sabbath's la- 
 bors. The missionary has come from his distant 
 plantation home, necessitating an early start. As 
 soon as possible, a prayer-meeting is held, at which 
 
Before Emancipation. 103 
 
 competent " watchmen " lead in praj'er. Next fol- 
 lows the sermon and its accompanying services of 
 song and prayer. In the afternoon there is the 
 Sunday-school for both adults and children, in which 
 all are orally taught Scripture truth and doctrine, 
 drilled thoroughly in the use of Jones' Catechism, 
 and all interspersed with hymns and tunes learned, 
 the one leader doing all that is done in an ordinary 
 school by superintendent and teachers together. 
 Then foEows an inquiry-meeting for the serious 
 and candidates for membership. Then a meeting 
 of the "watclimen" of the district is held, in which 
 the pastor receives detailed reports of the state of 
 rehgion and conduct of the members on the various 
 plantations, and disciplines delinquents when neces- 
 sary. And all this is interspersed with wise coun- 
 sels given to these humble under-shepherds ap- 
 pointed by church and pastor as his helpers. The 
 sun is low in the sky when the servant of God, 
 weary yet rejoicing, turns his steps homeward. 
 
 The week, s^Dent largely in his study (for he pre- 
 pared thoroughly for his services), and in the over- 
 Bight of his plantations, does not witness rest from 
 his preaching labors ; for he has appointments 
 
104* Plantation Life 
 
 during the week uj^on all the plantations open to 
 him, as all were in course of time, and as his 
 strength permits. 
 
 His custom was to send on, some time in advance, 
 to a i^lanter favoring his work, an apjDointment for 
 an evening in the week ; leaving to him all the de- 
 tails of arrangement. Sometimes the service was 
 held in the planter's mansion, the people bringing 
 with them their own benches or chairs, and some- 
 times in one of the negro houses, or the "praise 
 house," built fur the purpose. On his own planta- 
 tion it was a neat piastered building, with belfry 
 and bell. If in the planter's house, the parlor was 
 illuminated by candles and a cheerful fire on the 
 hearth. If in the quarters, often the main illumi- 
 nation would come from the great wide chimney 
 with its roaring fire, no matter how warm the night 
 chanced to be, with a single candle for the preacher. 
 Here this devoted servant of God faithfully preached, 
 and used "great plainness of speech." I have my- 
 self been amazed, as I Hstened, to see how, without 
 the loss of a particle of that dignity which was at 
 once characteristic of the man, and of his concep- 
 tions of the sacred ministry, he came down com- 
 
Before Emancipation. 105 
 
 pletelj to the level of tlie intellectual calibre of hig 
 humble hearers. The night service was followed or 
 preceded by visits to the aged and sick. Not a few 
 £>f these services were held, with the temperature 
 without almost that of summer, in small rooms, 
 crammed with workers in their work-a-day clothes, 
 with no window to open because of draft, and a hot 
 fire on the hearth. This experience, as I have heard 
 him say, was trying in no ordinary degree to him ; 
 for he was a poHshed gentleman, and neat in per- 
 son and habits beyond most even of his own race. 
 
 "We need not wonder at the gradual subsidence 
 of the suspicion, distrust and opposition encountered 
 at the outset, on the j^art of some ungodly planters, 
 when we peruse the wdse rules adopted by him, 
 mark his fidehty in preaching the whole counsel of 
 God, and read the account of some of the precious 
 fruits of his apostolical labors. With these we close. 
 
 In his tenth report, in which he "reviews the 
 work from the commencement," he writes: 
 
 "I laid dowTi the following rules of action, which 
 I have ever endeavored to observe faithfully : 
 
 "1. To visit no plantation without permission, 
 and, when permitted, never without previous notice. 
 
106 Plantation Life 
 
 " 2. To have nothing to do with the civil condi- 
 tion of the negroes, or with their plantation affairs. 
 
 " 3. To hear no tales respecting their owners, or 
 drivers, or work, and to keep within my own breast 
 whatever of a private nature might incidentally 
 come to my knowledge. 
 
 "4. To be no party to their quarrels, and have no 
 quarrels with them, but cultivate justice, impar- 
 tiahty, and universal kindness. 
 
 " 5. To condemn, without reservation, every vice 
 and evil among them, in the terms of God's holy 
 word, and to inculcate the fulfilment of every dutj^ 
 whatever might be the real or apparent hazard of 
 popularity or success. 
 
 " 6. To preserve the most perfect order at all our 
 public and private meetings. 
 
 "7. To impress the people with the great value of 
 the privilege enjoyed of religious instruction ; to in- 
 vite their co-operation and throw myself upon their 
 confidence and support. 
 
 "8. To make no attempt to create temporary ex- 
 citements, or to introduce any new plans or mea- 
 sures ; but make diligent and prayerful use of the or- 
 dinary and established means of God's appointment. 
 
Before Emancipation. 107 
 
 *' 9. To support, in the fullest mauuer, the peace 
 and order of society, and to hold up to their respect 
 and olDedience all those whom God, in his provi- 
 dence, has placed in authority over them. 
 
 " 10. To notice no slights or unkindnesses shown 
 to me personally ; to dispute with no man about the 
 work, but depend upon the power of the truth and 
 upon the Spirit and blessing of God, with long suf- 
 fering, patience, and perseverance, to overcome op- 
 position and remove prejudices, and ultimately bring 
 all things right." 
 
 There is an amusing instance related by himself 
 in his third report, and the particulars of which I 
 heard from his own hps, illustrative of the tempo- 
 rary unpopularity which he drew upon himself by 
 simply preaching the truth. " Of your missionary 
 some have said, 'We will not hear him; he preaches 
 to please the masters.' And once upon a time, 
 while enforcing a certain duty " (it was the duty of 
 not running away, and from Paul's treatment of 
 Onesimus, whom he sent back to his master), "when 
 enforcing a certain duty from the Scriptures which 
 servants owe to their masters, more than one-half of 
 my large congregation rose up and went away, every 
 
108 Plantation Lite 
 
 man to his house, and the part that remained seemed 
 to remain more from personal respect to the preacher 
 than from any liking to the doctrine." 
 
 But if he fearlessly " declared the whole ct)unsel 
 of God " to the slave, he no less fearlessly declared 
 it to the master, urging, and not without success, 
 reforms in their treatment of their servants, both as 
 bearing upon their physical comfort and the salva- 
 tion of their souls. 
 
 The natural result of his prudence and fidelity 
 to his mission, .as an expounder of God's word, 
 was the ultimate and complete removal of the 
 suspicion and prejudice which he at fii'st en- 
 countered, and a boundless popularity among the 
 colored people, sueh as no man ever before or since 
 has enjoyed. 
 
 As tlie result of these faithful labors, the physical 
 and moral conditions of the slaves were manifestly 
 improved, a sense of responsibility in regard to their 
 immortal interests awakened in the county, souls in 
 large numbers were converted mider his ministry, 
 and saints built up and fitted for heaven. The par- 
 ticular record of his pastoral experience was un- 
 fortimately consumed in the fire which destroyed 
 
Before Emancipation. 109 
 
 Lis residence when a Professor in the Seminary in 
 Columbia. 
 
 One precious revival occurred duiing his ministry, 
 of -^Ahich there is an interesting account in his fifth, 
 report. As a result, more than a hundred members 
 from this race "were added to old ISIidway church in 
 a little over a year. 
 
 The eighth annual report closes vrith an account 
 of a ""protracted meeting for the negroes^'' -which 
 furnishes suggestive reading to those who believe 
 slavery was " the sum of ^dllainies ! " We quote : 
 
 "In the month of November a protracted meeting 
 was held at ]Midway church in connection with the 
 meeting of the Presb}i;ery of Georgia, which con- 
 tinued a week. By universal consent of the chui'ch 
 and congTegation, Friday and Saturday mere given 
 to the negroes for religious worship, and some loho 
 were 7iot members, either of the church or congrega- 
 tion gave their people the two days. Planters who 
 were not members of the church xtnited cordially in, 
 it'* (Italics mine.) Services were held on Friday and 
 Saturday twice a day for the negroes in theii' own 
 church. The house could not contain the people ; 
 more without than within. On Sabbath they at- 
 
110 PlayStation Life. 
 
 tended from all parts of the county. The gallery 
 of the white church was filled, and perhaps as many 
 remained around the doors and windows of the 
 churches as had been accommodated with seats 
 within. The greatest order and propriety prevailed. 
 The members of the church were particularly grate- 
 ful for the privileges allowed them, and all seemed 
 anxious to hear the gospel. This protracted meet- 
 ing for the negroes deserves to be mentioned, as an 
 index of the interest of owners in their eternal wel- 
 fare, of their wilhngness to grant them eveiy oppor- 
 tunity of salvation, and to share the gospel with 
 them, and of theu' general order, sobriety and pro- 
 priety of conduct. The moral efiect upon the 
 negroes has been of the most satisfactory kind. It 
 has given them increased respect for and attach- 
 ment to their owners, and impressed them with the 
 sincerity of their desires for their best good, and 
 it has led them to believe more in the value and ne- 
 cessity of religion." 
 
CHAPTEE XIY. 
 
 ^ MISSIONARY TO THE BLACKS— HIS LABORS 
 FOR THEM. 
 
 DR. C. C. JONES was, in the fullest sense of the 
 term, a philanthropist. ^Tiile his direct object 
 was the salvation of the soul, the body was not 
 neglected. Not content with conversion, he aimed 
 to build up Christian character, and in every possi- 
 ble way he sought to awaken, and not without mar- 
 vellous success, the entire South to a deeper sense 
 of responsibihty for the temporal and spiritual wel- 
 fare of the slave. 
 
 I. Sis labors for their physical improvement. In 
 his reports to *'The Association for the Religious 
 Instruction of the Negroes," and in his paper read 
 before Synod, he fearlessly pressed upon his fellow- 
 slave-holders their duties to the bodies of their 
 slaves. In his second report, in 1834, he uses this 
 language, which may sound strangely to some ears: 
 *' While we think that we see an improvement in 
 111 
 
112 Plantation Life 
 
 their physical condition upon past years, we would 
 say that there is still vast room for improvement. 
 Tliey are entitled to a far larger portion of the 
 avails of their labor than they hace hitherto been 
 accustomed to receive!' (Italics mine.) In his third 
 report, in 1835, he uses this strong language, ad- 
 dressed to his fellow-citizens and fellow-Christians : 
 " If you do not labor and be at some sacrifice to im- 
 prove \}iM&]X physical con'^Uion, providing more lib- 
 erally, and to the extent of your means, for their 
 comfort, in good houses, good clothing, and good 
 food ; if you do not regulate their clisci2oline so as 
 to maintain authority without injustice, they cannot, 
 and will not, value your instruction." In an elab- 
 orate report of a committee appointed by the Synod 
 of South CaroHna and Georgia in 1833, endorsed, 
 "Prepared by C. C. J.," and having for its chairman 
 Moses Waddel, D. D., and such additional names as 
 B. M. Palmer, D. D., S. S. Davis, S. J. Cassels, 
 James English, etc., which was adopted and pub- 
 lished to the world, the following bold language is 
 found: "The principle which regulates duty in 
 slavery on the part of the master has been thus de- 
 fined : ' Get aU you can, and give back as httle as 
 
Before Emancipation. 113^ 
 
 you can ' ; aud on the part of the servants the re- 
 verse, ' Give as little as you can, and get back all 
 you can.' When we remember what human nature 
 is, and when we obsei-^^e the conduct of masters and 
 sei'vants, we fear that there is too much truth as to 
 the existence of this principle." "Religion will tell 
 the master that his servants are his fellow-creatures, 
 and that he has a Master in heaven to whom he 
 shall account for his treatment of them. The mas- 
 ter va\l be led to inquiries of this sort: In what 
 kind of houses do I j^ermit them to live ? What 
 clothes do I give them to wear ? AVhat food to eat, 
 what privileges to enjoy? In what temper and 
 manner and proportion to their crimes are they 
 pimished ? " Extracts might also be given in which 
 he urges the provision of sufficient house-room for 
 growing famihes, to secure privacy, and exhorts 
 masters to prevent, by authority, open immoralit}" in 
 the slaves, and to abstain from all violation of the 
 marriage bond by separating husband and wife. 
 
 Now, it required uncommon boldness to speak and 
 write thus, when the insidious efforts of abolitionists 
 to stir uj^ the slaves to the use of torch and knife 
 had rendered the Southern mind exceedincflv sensi- 
 
114 Plantation Life 
 
 tive and suspicious ; traces of which sentiments are 
 to be found in references in some of his earher reports. 
 
 In his tenth report (1845), in which he reviews ten 
 years of work among masters and servants, he grate- 
 fully notes improvement in these words : " The re- 
 ligious instruction of the negroes has had a good ef- 
 fect upon masters. We observe a milder discipline 
 and kinder feelings and greater attention to the 
 morals and comforts of the peojDle, and, as a conse- 
 quence, their physical condition is imjwoved." In 
 his twelfth report, presented in 1847, he remarks: 
 *' Greater attention is paid to their clothing, their 
 food, their houses, their comforts, their family rela- 
 xations and morality at home. And the appearance 
 of the peoi)le, both at home and abroad, indicates 
 this increased care and attention on the part of their 
 owners." 
 
 II. Their spiritual improvement. His work was 
 not done when the slave became, through grace, 
 Christ's freeman ; he proceeded to build him up into 
 a citizen of Zion. And recognizing the agency of 
 divine truth in this process, hs not only earnestly 
 preached but, diligently taught young and old, in the 
 only way then possible, that is, orally. 
 
Before EiLixciPATioN. 115 
 
 Eeminding the iininfonned reader that aboUtion- 
 ists of that day did not scruple to pubHsh and 
 mail the most incendiaiy documents, and even to 
 place them in the very packages used in the South- 
 ern kitchens, he v^iVL understand the motive of some 
 laws passed in the South, forbidding the instruction 
 of the negro in the art of reading. It was oui' mis- 
 take ; but there was in the fact just stated at least 
 a palhation, and in most States the law was a dead 
 letter. The white children were always ready to, and 
 did, teach any who wished it, to read. We quote from 
 the Synodical report this faithful statement of this 
 difficulty in evangehzing the negro: "It is univer- 
 sally the fact throughout the slave-holding States, 
 that either custom or law prohibits to them the ac- 
 quisition of letters, and consequent^ they can have 
 no access to the Scriptui'es. The proportion that 
 read is infinitely small; the Bible, so far as they can 
 read it themselves, is to all intents and purposes a 
 sealed book, so that they are dependent for their 
 knowledge of Christianity upon oral instruction, as 
 much so as the imlettered heathen, when first visited 
 by QUI* missionaries. If our laws in their operation 
 seal up the Scriptures to the negroes, we should not 
 
116 Plantation Life 
 
 allow them to suffer in the least degree, so far as any 
 effort on our part may be necessary^ for want of 
 knowledge of their contents." 
 
 Compelled thus to rely upon oral instruction for 
 the communication, not only of saving truth to 
 children, but more advanced x - ligious knowledge to 
 adults, he was very early in his work among the 
 slaves constrained to prepare a manual of his own. 
 We find an allusion to it in his first report to " the 
 Association." " The children and youth have been 
 to all appearance much interested. I instruct them 
 from a catechism which I am attempting to prepare 
 for them." In the tenth report he gives this inter- 
 esting account of the causes which led to the com- 
 position of this interesting manual: ''A diJfficulty 
 presented itself at the very beginning of my Sab- 
 bath-school instruction. There were no hooks ! I 
 tried all the catechisms. Necessity forced me to 
 attempt something myself. I prepared the lessons 
 weekly, and tried them and corrected them from 
 the schools, and the result was ; " The Catechism 
 of Scripture Doctrine and Practice;" or, to give 
 the title more fully, "A Catechism of Scripture Doc- 
 Doctrine and Practice, for Families and Sabbath- 
 
Before Emancipation. 117 
 
 schools. Designed also for the oral instruction of 
 colored persons. By Charles C. Jones." 
 
 He steadily refused the request of the Presbyte- 
 rian Boai'd of Pubhcation to pubhsh an edition with 
 the reference to the negro left off, for use in white 
 schools. His method of composing it, as I learned 
 from his own hps, was to ask the question and 
 then note the answer, and frequently the extem- 
 poraneous reply of the negro pupil would be so 
 superior in plainness to his written answer, that he 
 would substitute it for his own. This catechism 
 was translated into Armenian by Rev. Dr. J. B. 
 Adger when a missionary in Syria, and by Eev. 
 John Quarterman into one of the dialects of China, 
 and used in both countries. It was uniyersally 
 adopted in Liberty county and in many parts of the 
 South, and found invaluable in the family as well as 
 in the instruction of the slaves. The writer used it 
 to great advantage in his own household in the re- 
 ligious training of his children, and in preparing 
 colored catechumens for church membership. Here 
 is what its author has to say of the possibihty of 
 communicating truth orally to the slave : " That 
 they are apt in receiving instruction, none have ever 
 
118 Plantation Life 
 
 doubted who have favored us with their presence 
 for a single Sabbath. No difference v^dll be per- 
 ceived generally between them and other childi'en 
 in like circumstances. There are scholars who can 
 repeat thirty pages of the catechism with accuracy, 
 and by vaiying the form of the questions, and so 
 putting their knowledge to proof, it will be seen 
 that they recite with intelligence also. To those 
 who are ignorant of letters, their memory is their 
 hook. That faculty is capable of astonishing im- 
 provement. Knowledge may be communicated and 
 retained to almost any extent through oral instruc- 
 tion alone. In a recent examination of one of the 
 schools, I was forcibly struck with their remem- 
 brance of passages of Scripture. Those questions 
 which turned upon and called for passages of Scrip- 
 ture, the scholars answered more readily than any 
 other. It was with them as with all youth, a Scrip- 
 ture fact, a Scripture story, once told and impressed, 
 is stamped on the tablet of memory forever." 
 
 We ventui'e the assertion that the slave population 
 of Liberty county, enjoying these advantages, had a 
 clearer and more systematic and thorough knowledge 
 of Scripture histor}^, doctrine and practice than many 
 
Before Emancipation. 119 
 
 a white community this day who can read and have 
 only such preaching as can be supplied by some 
 Evangelical denominations. I know from experience 
 .that the faithful instruction enjoyed in that favored 
 county through the apostolical labors of this godly 
 minister woke up the mind of the African to the 
 agitation of questions which astonished me. For 
 example, au intelHgent carpenter, upon whom it was 
 my custom to call to lead in prayer, once took me 
 aside before service and asked me how he should 
 represent to himself the three persons of the God- 
 head in prayer so as to avoid idolatiy ! 
 
 Under this combined instruction of the pulpit 
 and Sabbath-school, multitudes of precious souls 
 were not only converted, but trained for earth and 
 heaven. 
 
 It "-rere to be wished that some liberal-hearted 
 Christian could be induced to fui-nish the means to 
 pubhsh an edition of this most valuable Catechism, 
 with only such few changes as would be necessaiy 
 in their altered circumstances, for the use of our 
 colored population. Prepared by one who loved, 
 gave his hfe to, and studied and hnew the race wore 
 perfectly than any man living or dead, the Catechism 
 
120 Plantation Life. 
 
 would, I doubt not, be as useful now as it was in the 
 l^ast. 
 
 Note. — A copy of the Catechism in my Hbrary fell, 
 with the rest of my books, into the hands of Sher- 
 man's soldiers. Strange to say, the chapter on the 
 duties of masters and servants is undisturbed, but 
 the chapter on "What the Church of God is," has 
 suffered, both from the knife and the pencil of a 
 zealous Baptist, presumably a chaplain, an enemy to 
 infant baptism. 
 
CHAPTEE XV. 
 
 A MISSIONARY TO TEE BLACKS— HIS LABORS 
 FOR TEEM. 
 
 IT was impossible in the last chapter to present, 
 without engrossing too much space, even a sketch 
 of Dr. Jones' labors for the slave. Three things 
 remain to be signahzed under this head, 
 
 III. His agency in the formation of an Associa- 
 tion in his native county for the furtherance of 
 this cause. 
 
 I have in my Ubrary a bound volume of pamphlets, 
 once the property of Dr. Jones, and now mine by 
 inheritance through his daughter. It is to me a 
 precious and invaluable treasure. It contains the 
 report of the Committee on the Religious Instruc- 
 tion of the Colored Population, adopted by the then 
 undivided Synod of South Carolina and Georgia, 
 December, 1833, of which, as shown by his penciled 
 endorsement, he, although not the chairman, was 
 the author -, thirteen Annual Reports of C. C. Jones 
 121 
 
122 Plantation Life 
 
 to " The Association for the Eehgious Instruction of 
 the Negroes," extending from 1833 to 1848 ; proceed- 
 ings of a meeting held in Charleston by the friends 
 of the cause in 1845, with a report of a committee 
 and an address to the holders of slaves in South 
 CaroHna, the result of that assembly of Christians 
 and patriots of different denominations, and in which 
 figure such noted South Carolina names as Huger, 
 Capers, Cotesworth Pinckney, Barnwell, Rhett, 
 Alston, Grimes, Memminger, Piavennel, and other 
 names as prominent in the church as Dr. McWhir, 
 Eev. Mr. Barnwell, Dr. C. C. Jones, Dr. Thomas 
 Smyth, Dr. Benjamin Gildersleeve, Thomas S. Clay, 
 etc. ; and also Dr. Jones' suggestions on the religious 
 instruction of the negroes in the Southern States. 
 A penciled note in Dr. Jones' hand- writing, at the 
 bottom of the first page of the second report, states, 
 "the fii'st report was not to be had, as copies 
 were burnt up," (in the burning of his residence in 
 Columbia). Either he or his companion afterwards 
 recovered it from some owner, and pinned it, with 
 its leaves uncut, in its proper place. It seems 
 providential that these reports should have been 
 all preserved; for as miU. he seen farther on, they 
 
Before Em-incipatiox. 123 
 
 contaiu an account, not simply of what one man and 
 one count J did, but what Southern Christians of 
 every denomination had been doing for years for 
 the salvation of their slaves. 
 
 In the tenth report we have this account of the 
 origin of an association of which Dr. Jones was the 
 founder, and whose influence extended far beyond 
 the bounds of the favored county which was for 
 many years its home : 
 
 " The spiritual wants and condition of the negroes 
 in the county, theii' ignorance of the gospel, and the 
 duty and the best means of affording them suitable 
 and systematic instruction, were subjects of conver- 
 sation with the ministers and certain members of 
 the churches for some time in the winter of 1831 ; 
 and on the 10th of March a meeting of 2:)ersons fa- 
 vorable to the adoption of some efi&cient plan for 
 their rehgious instruction was called in Eiceboro'. 
 Upon consultation, it was determined to form an 
 Association for the purpose, and a committee was 
 api^ointed to j)repare a re^Dort and a constitution, 
 and Rev. C. C. Jones to deliver an address at 
 another meeting, to be held in the same place on 
 the 28th of March. At that meetiu-- the address 
 
124 Plantation Life 
 
 •was delivered, the constitution reported and adopted, 
 and the present Association formed. Tu:enty-nine 
 individuals, in the course of some weeks, signed the 
 constitution." 
 
 From the constitution, published in the seventh 
 report, we emphasize only the following particulars 
 as bearing upon our object in these letters. Offi- 
 cered as usual, any one might become a member by 
 signing the constitution and paying an annual sub- 
 scription of two dollars. To an executive committee 
 was entrusted the entire suj^ervision of the work of 
 colored evangelization, in the selection of stations 
 and appointment of " teacher or teachers " — that is, 
 laborers. Meeting annually, a report or address 
 was to be made by some person appointed by the 
 Association. 
 
 Article VI. reads : " The instructions of this Asso- 
 ciation shall be altogether oral, embracing the gen- 
 eral principles of the Christian rehgion, as under- 
 stood by orthodox Christians, avoiding, in the pub- 
 lic instruction of the negi'oes, doctrines which par- 
 ticularly distinguish the different denominations of 
 the country from each other." 
 
 Designedly undenominational, its lirst officers 
 
Before Emancipation. 125 
 
 were : President, Eev. Tobert Quarterman (Presby- 
 terian) ; Vice-President, Eev. Samuel S. Law (Bap- 
 tist). Executive Committee: Thomas Bacon (Bap- 
 tist), Thomas Mallard (Presbyterian), etc. ; and Mis- 
 sionary, Eev. Charles C. Jones (Presbyterian). 
 
 From the first, composed of the best and most 
 prominent citizens of the county, this noble Associa- 
 tion, by its annual meetings, to which the pubhc 
 was invited ; by the information collected and pub- 
 lished, by its indefatigable missionaiT, concerning 
 the needs of the negro, and what was being done, 
 not only in the county, but throughout the South ; 
 and by the stirring addresses delivered from time to 
 time by himself and other ministers, communicated 
 a constant impulse to the work at home. As will 
 be seen, it was no small instrument of stimulating 
 Christians throughout the South to similar activity. 
 
 IV. Ills 2)e7'sonal efforts outside the coxinty and 
 State to interest the church and country in thQ 
 cause. 
 
 In the inteiwal between his two periods of work 
 among the slaves of Liberty county, he made an 
 extensive tour through the States, and wherever he 
 journeyed he embraced every opportunity in inter- 
 
12G Plantation Lite 
 
 esting his fellow-citizens in the evangehzation of the 
 negro. I extract from the fifth report. Referring 
 to " an extended and protracted journey through 
 the Northern and Middle States," he remarks : 
 
 " There was no subject more solicitously inquired 
 into by judicious and pious men wdth whom we 
 met; and frequent opportunities were afforded me 
 by special invitation, of the most respectable kind, 
 for laying before the people assembled for the pur- 
 pose, a sketch of what w^as doing in the Southern 
 States for the instruction of the negroes in the 
 principles of Christianity, and of expressing the 
 views and feelings of the Southern churches on the 
 subject. These addresses were received with unani- 
 mous satisfaction, saving one unimportant excep- 
 tion." 
 
 As a Professor of Church History in Columbia, 
 he not only, if I remember, organized a flourishing 
 colored Sunday. school, but embraced the many op- 
 portunities, public and private, w^hich constantly 
 occurred in his intimate associations with the stu- 
 dents, to turn their minds toward the neglected col- 
 ored population of the South. And the engrossing 
 cares of his official life as Secretary of Home Mis- 
 
Before Emancipation. 127 
 
 ■sions did not induce f jrgetfuluess of the negro ; for 
 he sought to shape the work of that important arm 
 of the chui'ch with decided and special reference to 
 that portion of the home field found on the planta- 
 tions of the South. 
 
 V. Jlis labor for them in his correspondence and 
 publications. 
 
 The annual reports give evidence of a vast personal 
 corresjjondence with men all over the South upon 
 the subject of the negro — a correspondence, with 
 perhaps some assistance from members of his family, 
 conducted mainly by his own pen. 
 
 His reports and addresses, prepared for and de- 
 livered before ecclesiastical bodies, master-pieces in 
 iheir way, were published under their official sanc- 
 tion, and widely circulated throughout the South, 
 stirring the churches of e\evj name as with the blast 
 of a trumpet. 
 
 His annual reports to the local Association, as they 
 were intended for a larger audience, so through the 
 press were they distributed throughout the South, 
 and had a wonderful effect in arousing the Southern 
 conscience in regard to their duty to the slave. In 
 the second report I find this allusion to this method 
 
128 Plantation Life 
 
 of promoting the cause : " It may be gratifying ta 
 the Association to know that two editions of their 
 report for the past year have been printed, and there 
 is now a demand for a third." An extract from one 
 of the many letters received pays this tribute to his 
 work: "Your noiseless labors in Liberty county 
 are not unobserved by the Christian world, and are 
 watched with intense interest by many." 
 
 While we would not discount the labors of count- 
 less conscientious masters and mistresses in instruct- 
 ing and catechising their slaves, and of faithful min- 
 isters who labored among them, and prominent 
 Christians who with tongue and pen wrought for 
 the salvation of the slave, with a fidelity which doubt- 
 less will receive recognition " at that day," we do not 
 hesitate to say that Charles Colcocl: Jones, whether 
 his labors among or his labors for them with tongue 
 and pen be considered, deserves more than any man 
 who has ever Hved the title of " The Aj^ostle to the 
 NegTo Slave ! " 
 
 This resume of his labors for the redemption of 
 the negro cannot be more appropriately closed than 
 in these words, w^hich disclose the great loving heart 
 of this eminent servant of Christ : 
 
Before Emancipation. 129 
 
 " I cannot describe the peculiar and joyful feelings 
 that have possessed my mind when I have seen peni- 
 tents from this long neglected and degraded people 
 inquiring what they must do to be saved. It is not 
 building upon another man's foundation. You are 
 in the x hways and hedges. You gather the first 
 fruits yourself, and the undivided joy takes full pos- 
 session of the souL " 
 
CHAPTEE XYI. 
 
 RELIGIOUS ANECDOTES OF THE NEGRO. 
 
 I AM quite sure that our readers ■will be glad to 
 have the following anecdotes, illustrative of negro 
 character, and of the results of the faithful instruc- 
 tions of Rev. Charles Colcock Jones and his fellow- 
 laborers, the planters of Liberty county, Ga. I will 
 not occupy space wdth comments. 
 
 Under the head of " Degree of Eeligious Intelli- 
 gence Among the People," he gives the following 
 incidents : 
 
 Said one, speaking of the rehgious advantages en- 
 joyed : " Sir, the people never had the gospel so 
 opened to then' understandings before ; many 
 walked in darkness for the want of the true Light ; 
 but all the power of God is needed to make them 
 profit by it; God only can ojDen men's hearts." 
 Another : " If any are lost in this Liberty county, it 
 will be their fault. They have hght enough, and 
 close at hand, and privileges enough to go to. Yea, 
 130 
 
Before Emancipation. 131 
 
 more, the light is brought on the plantations and 
 set down at their very doors." 
 
 An obserying man gave it as his opinion " that 
 .the people were better able now to understand the 
 gospel from ministers preaching to the ichites than 
 formerly. For example, they were able to follow 
 the ministers with their copy ; whereas, beforetime, 
 they could not do so at all. The reason he believed 
 to be an increase of knowledge through the Sabbath- 
 schools and direct preaching to the negroes. He 
 thought ministers did much better in preaching 
 when they put down their copy." 
 
 The following is a dialogue between a man and a 
 woman: ''I saw you talking to the minister before 
 meeting, and you told him everything that was 
 doing on the plantation." "Good woman, I did 
 not." "Sir, you did. How came the minister to 
 know what was done on the place only Saturday 
 night ? Everybody in the church knew who he was 
 talking about. Do you think people like to be car- 
 ried into the pulpit and turned every which way for 
 people to look at % " " Woman, you wrong me ; you 
 have not the right understanding of the matter. 
 Does not God know^ all things ? " " Well, sii', I 
 
132 Plantation Life 
 
 know that as well as you do ! " "But, woman, put 
 your knowledge to use. Does not tlie minister 
 preach the Word of Goclf Does not the word of 
 God know all things? Was it not made to suit 
 everybody ? Well, then, the minister did not know 
 i7i himself anything about you, but the word of God 
 did ; and by the way you speak now, it^^^ you ex- 
 actly; and so it proves itself to you to be the Word 
 of God that knoweth all things, and, instead of 
 being vexed with the word of God, you had better 
 straighten your ways and be at peace with it." 
 
 A member of the church gave the preacher the 
 following encouragement ; " You preach Sunday ; 
 you preach in the w^eek ; many hear. The seed falls 
 on much ground ; now some will turn and come ; 
 the good seed will sometimes fall on good ground ; 
 so keep on preaching ; keep throwing your net, you 
 wnll catch some." 
 
 During a revival a " watchman " insisted : " Sir, 
 do not take the people in too soon y instruct them 
 well ; make them wait; such and such men were 
 taken into the church during the revival in Mr. 
 
 's time ; they partook of the sacrament once 
 
 or twice, and there ended their religion. It is easy 
 taking in^ hut it is hard putting out." 
 
Before Emancipation. 133 
 
 Mounting his horse at a close of a plantation 
 meeting, the preacher was thus addressed : " Sir, 
 please to come as often as you can. Plantation 
 meetings do as much good as Sunday meetings ; be- 
 cause on Sunday many garnish themselves and go 
 to church for show; they hear, but do not attend. 
 On the plantation they do not garnish themselves, 
 nor look around, but give attention to the Word." 
 
 One member asked counsel of another : " Is 
 twice a week often enough to hold plantation pray- 
 ers?" It was answered: "No! my brother. Do 
 we eat and drink eveiy day ? Does God keep the 
 people on the plantation from evil every day ? Does 
 he keep them from evil every night ? Must we not 
 thank God for these mercies? "We cannot give 
 God thanks enough for it if we tiy. Do we not sin 
 eveiy day, and every day need God's pardon and 
 God's help to do our duty ? My brother, we must 
 pray every day for ourselves, and hold plantation 
 prayers every night" 
 
 A " watchman " who was giving instruction to a 
 house servant^ .fyr some reason not very creditable to 
 himself, did not wish the fact known to the mis- 
 tress, and told the woman not to tell to whom she 
 12 
 
134 Plantation Life 
 
 had been. Another watchman reproved him thus : 
 "You do wrong. You are leading the woman to 
 God by the way of the devil. While you tell her to 
 be honest and sincere before God, you teach her to 
 lie to men..^' 
 
 At an inquiry meeting one answered : " I came 
 to church here ; I went home and thought of the 
 sermon ; my sins troubled me ; I went to my mistress ; 
 she told me to go, pray and confess my sins to God, 
 and beg him to forgive me and give me a new heart 
 for Christ's sake." Another said: "My master 
 spoke to me about my soul, and I considered what 
 he said, and my sins troubled me." Another : " I 
 was in the prayer-house on the plantation; I was 
 careless. At the close I was weak as water. I was 
 afraid I should die and be lost ; I felt very wicked ; 
 I felt I needed assistance. I could not save my- 
 self." Another: "I felt very mean on account of 
 my sin; I felt I needed a Saviour. That feeling 
 made me go to Christ." Said another: "Ah! sir; 
 my heart and the Bible are not one" 
 
 The experience of a young man believed to be 
 converted was thus related by himself: "Religion 
 began in me by little and little, and deepened as I 
 
Before Esl\ncipation. 135 
 
 went forward. A full year or more before I hoxDed I 
 was converted, I ofttimes would go out of the house 
 from among my wicked companion p, leave music 
 aud dancing, and go asido and pray, and come 
 back; but was ashamed to tell that I had gone out 
 to praj'." His attention was particularly called to 
 religion by what he had read in JVebstet'^s Sj^elUiig 
 Book! "Wishing to learn to read, he got a book 
 and spelled out: '* Sin will lead us to pain and 
 looef' and again: ''A bad man can take no re^t 
 day or night ;" and he felt that it was so — he could 
 rest neither day or night. He went on until it was 
 impossible to contain his feelings, and then made 
 them known. 
 
 This young man also related a conversation with 
 one of his old dissipated companions : " You and I 
 can never be as great (intimate) as we have been, 
 because I do not love your ways noto as I used to do, 
 neither do you love my ways. To be as great as we 
 liave been, yoii rnvst come to me, or I must go hack 
 to you. Go back to you I cannot; you must come 
 to me. Nor can I be with you as before. A doctor 
 visits a sick man and gives him medicine, and goes 
 away. Now suppose that doctor hves, eats and 
 
136 Plaittation Lite 
 
 sleeps Id the bed continually with the sick man, -will 
 he not be sure to catch his sickness or something 
 from him ? So if I come and eat and sleep with you, 
 I shall be presently as bad as you are. All I can do 
 is, come and tell you the Word, and give you in- 
 struction, according to my weak understanding, and 
 go away; and yet I am your friend, and a better 
 and safer friend than ever."' His friend answered: 
 *'I cannot go your way." "Stop!" said he. "If 
 I tell you where you may go and do a piece of work 
 and get money, will you not go? Now rehgion is 
 better than silver or gold ; if I tell you the way you 
 can go and seek religion, will you not go for it? You 
 are seeking to get up a great character with master, 
 driver, people, everybody. What will hurt your 
 character you care for; what will not hurt 3'our 
 character you do not care for. After you get this 
 character you are satisfied. You are wrong. Let 
 me teU you, the simier has the meanest character 
 on the face of the earth. The sinner does not know 
 it, and cannot see it, until he is brought out of 
 it. Then he can see and know it. I know it be- 
 cause I see it, but you do not. I call the sinner 
 devUy' now this hurts yonr feelings. Now listen to 
 me. Angels in heaven are righteous j Jesus is 
 
Befoke Emancipation. 137 
 
 holy ; God is holy; sin is filthy. You are a sinner ; 
 you are filthy; you are the devil! What meaner 
 character can a man be, than be as the devil?" 
 • The interest often felt in the conversion of theii* 
 masters is strong and lively. " You know my master. 
 It is in his power to forbid ail prayer and praise on 
 the place; to stop the voice. But it is not in the 
 power of man to destroy love in the heart ; to make 
 us hate the God we love. We can love in silence. 
 But my master stops no man in religion. He says 
 he will stand in no man's way. We ring our bell 
 and hold our prayers continually. I only wish he 
 were a Chiustian. But I live in hope. I think I see 
 an alteration. When he speaks now of the business 
 on the plantation he says, ^Jfioe live,^ ^ If Provi- 
 dence perm^its^ we will do this and that; in times 
 past, he did not use to speak so." 
 
 But we must close, and we do it with two anec- 
 dotes, which bring before us our "missionary to 
 the blacks" in the sweetness of his humility, and 
 tenderness of his loving appreciation of the piety and 
 fidelity of his humble co-workers in the building up 
 of Christ's kingdom among the lowly. " There never 
 has been an instance of an individual's dechning to 
 
138 PlayStation Lite 
 
 pray wlien called upon to do so. (My own experi« 
 ence.) Many of tlieii' prayers, though uttered in 
 broken language, have been of great f ei-vency, com- 
 pass and expression. I can never forget the prayers 
 of Demho, a native Afiican, for many years a mem- 
 ber of Midway chui'ch. There was a depth of hu- 
 mihty, a conviction of sinfulness and inability to aE 
 good, an assui*ance of faith, a sense of the divine 
 presence, a nearness of access to God, a spiritual 
 perception of, and a union with Christ as the life and 
 righteousness of the soul, a flowing out of love, a 
 being swallowed uj:) in God, which I never heard 
 before or since ; and often w^hen he closed his prayers, 
 I felt I was as weak as water, and that I ought not 
 to open my mouth in public, and indeed knew not 
 what it was to pray. This modest, exemx)laiy and 
 holy man died full of years, iu firm hope of a blessed 
 immortality, leaving behind him the fragrance of his 
 virtues and a bright example in all the relations of 
 life." And this from one, who most of all men I 
 have ever heard pray, lifted the supphant into the 
 very presence chamber of the great King, and pros- 
 trated the soul before the majesty of heaven in rev- 
 erential and adoring love! 
 
Before Emancipation. 139 
 
 He writes : " On tiie death of Jack Salters, -which 
 occurred when Mr. Gildersleeve was pastor of Mid- 
 way church, he was succeeded by Sharper, belonging 
 tp Mrs. Quarterman, a man of most remarkable in- 
 tegrity, piety, zeal and energy of character; who 
 enjoyed the confidence of the entire community until 
 his death, which occurred in the spring of 1833. He 
 not only preached at 'the Stand,' at Midway, on the 
 Sabbath, as his predecessors had done, but he labored 
 with apostohcal zeal more abundantly than they all. 
 He attended regularly meetings not only at the estate 
 of Lamberts (the plantation left by Mr. Lambert for 
 charitable and religious pui'poses), and at Mr. James' 
 plantation, but many others. His evening meetings 
 with the people were very numerous, his influence 
 great and solely for God. He was a special instru- 
 ment in the hands of God for the moral improvement 
 and salvation of the negroes of the county. The 
 effects of his labors are seen on every hand at this 
 day. He died full of years, universally lamented. 
 I attended his funeral. It was on the green in front 
 of Midway church, by the light of the moon. Be- 
 tween two and three hundred negroes were present. 
 At the close of the services we o^Dened the coffin. The 
 
140 Plantation Life. 
 
 moon slione upon his face. The people gazed upon 
 it and lifted up then* voices and wept. His sons 
 bore him to his grave. In silence we returned to our 
 homes, oppressed with grief at this heavy affliction 
 of God!" 
 
CHAPTEE XYII. 
 
 WHAT WAS DONE FOR THE NEORO BY OTHEU 
 MEN AND WOMEN, MINISTERS, CHURCHES, 
 AND COMMUNITIES 
 
 ONE can but be amused with the simpHcity -with 
 ■which George Miiller avows that his great or- 
 phanage, with its two thousand inmates, was con- 
 ducted entirely upon the principle of making its 
 wants known exclusively to God. The condensed 
 history of the straits to which it w^as from time to 
 time reduced, and wonderfully reheved in answer to 
 prayer, with the story of the governing principle and 
 the wants of the orphans, annually published and 
 paraded throughout the United Kingdom, was the 
 strongest and most effective appeal for human help ; 
 his practice was more scriptural than his theory. 
 
 There was no such incompatibility between the 
 theory and the practice of oiu' philanthropist mis- 
 sionary; he combined work with jirayer, and gave 
 due credit to each. 
 
 141 
 
142 Plantation Life 
 
 Referring to his early commercial life, I remem- 
 ber to have heard him say that there was room even 
 in a rnerchant's avocation for the largest exercise of 
 intellect. Had he been permitted to serve God and 
 bis generation in that calling, he would have been 
 among the foremost, not only in success, but intelli- 
 :gence ; he would have familiarized himself with the 
 history of ancient and modern commerce, with coun- 
 tries and their productions, with the highways of 
 the seas and lands and modes of transportation, and 
 the laws of finance. Now, all this thoroughness of 
 information, breadth of view, firmness of grasp, 
 clearness of vision, and painstaking industry, he 
 carried into his hfework. He informed himself 
 concerning the history of African slavery, and the 
 numbers and condition, physical and siiiritual, of 
 the negro race in America. And bearing upon his 
 great heart the immortal interests, not only of the 
 four thousand slaves, constituting, we may say, his 
 immediate pastoral charge, but of the two millions 
 of them scattered throughout the South, he, while 
 diligently cultivating his own particular field, took 
 within his sympathetic vision the entire area of 
 slavery, and labored as earnestly to have accom- 
 
Before Emancipation. 143 
 
 plished by other hands the same work he, with his 
 co-laborers, was doing in his native comity. It is 
 this last peculiarity which makes the work I have 
 undertaken in this letter easy. Only four out of 
 the thirteen reports rendered to " The Association 
 for the Eeligious Instruction of the Negro " are con- 
 fined to county work ; the balance give each, in turn, 
 a more or less complete review of the work being 
 done by other hands throughout the Southern 
 church. 
 
 To relate all that was accomplished by Southern 
 Christians and philanthropists for the salvation and 
 elevation of the negro slave would necessitate a pro- 
 tracted and difficult investigation, in which the 
 labor involved would probably outweigh the result. 
 "With the aid of Dr. Jones' reports, we hope to be 
 able to give such specimens as will inspire us with 
 an exalted opinion of the Southern slave-holder. 
 
 We begin with the following candid and fearless 
 presentation of the lamentable condition of the 
 negro when the great movement began throughout 
 the South, in which Dr. Jones was not the only, but 
 the most potent factor. It is from his pen, and 
 bears date of 1834: 
 
144 Plantation Life 
 
 " The negroes have no regular and efficient min- 
 istry; as a matter of course, no churches ; neither 
 is there sufficient room in white churches for their 
 accommodation. We know of but five churches in 
 the slave-holding States built expressly for their 
 use. The galleries or back seats on the lower floor 
 of white churches are generally appropriated to the 
 negroes, when it can be done with convenience to 
 the whites. Where it cannot be done conveniently, 
 the negroes who attend must catch the gospel as it 
 
 escapes by the doors and windows From an 
 
 extensive observation we venture to say, that not a 
 twentieth part of the negroes throughout the 
 Southern States attend divine worshij) on the 
 
 Sabbath They have no Bibles to read at 
 
 their firesides, they have no family altars, and when 
 in affliction, sickness or death, they have no minis- 
 ters to address to them the consolations of the 
 gospel, nor to bury them with solemn and appro- 
 priate services For the most part, they de- 
 pend upon those of their o-^ti color, who perform 
 them as well as they know how, if they happen to 
 be at hand." 
 
 It must not be inferred from these statements 
 
Before Emancipation. 145 
 
 that tlie neglect was by any means universal; even 
 the sombreness of this picture is relieved by such 
 sunny touches as these: " Sometimes a kind master 
 .will perform these offices;" "Here and there a 
 master feels interested for the salvation of his ser- 
 vants, and is attempting something towards it, in 
 assembhng them at evening for Scripture reading 
 and prayer, in admitting and inviting quahfied per- 
 sons to preach to them, in estabhshing a daily or 
 weekly school for the children, and in conducting 
 the labor and discipline of the plantation upon 
 gospel principles. We rejoice that there are such, 
 and that the number is increasing.'' There were, 
 no doubt, a faithful "seven thousand," if not more, 
 in his, as in Elijah's day. 
 
 The re23orts show a steady improvement in all 
 particulars. We read of churches being built for 
 them, in Liberty county and elsewhere, by slave 
 owners; of men and women stirred up to personal 
 work for the salvation of their people ; and of eccle- 
 siastical bodies taking up the matter in good earnest, 
 and resolving and going to work in the neglected 
 field, with the most gratifying results all over the 
 
 South. 
 
 13 
 
.146 Plantation Lite 
 
 "We wish it were in our power to publish the 
 statements in exteiiso proving this, but we can only 
 •give specimens culled here and there from the broad 
 and inviting field of these interesting annual re- 
 ports. 
 
 Under the head of individual efforts, take these 
 illustrations: "Detail of a plan for the moral im- 
 provement of negroes on plantations, by Thomas S. 
 Clay, of Bryan county, Ga." Mr. Clay was a large 
 rice planter on the Ogeechee river, a bosom friend 
 of Dr. Jones, and living in the adjoining county. In 
 the matter of control upon gospel j^rinciples and re- 
 ligious instruction, his large plantation was a 
 model, and his tractate was simjoly a publication to 
 the Christian world of his mode of thus manag- 
 ing it. 
 
 This is said as far back as 1833 of a Virginia 
 planter of Albemarle county, the owner of two hun- 
 <ired and fifty slaves : " Pie made special efforts to 
 have the gospel preached to them. The conse- 
 quence was that their whole condition and apjDear- 
 ance were improved surjDrisingly. About thirty be- 
 came professing Christians, and upwards of ninety 
 joined the temperance society. This gentleman 
 
Before Emancipation. 147 
 
 made liberal offers to any minister who would under- 
 take the instruction of his people." This is only 
 one of many examples of planters mentioned as 
 thus faithful and hberal in offering to pay sufScien': 
 salaries to any who would preach to their ser- 
 vants. 
 
 A gentleman in New Orleans, to whom a report 
 of the Association, and also the report of the Synod 
 of South Carolina and Georgia, had been forwarded, 
 writes as follows : "As the black population of this 
 State are immersed in rehgious ignorance, the cumu- 
 lation of these reports among the owners of slaves 
 here might, I would hope, awaken them to a sense 
 of their duty." Ordering one hundred and fifty 
 copies of each, he contiuues : " The system of in- 
 struction recommended in the reports had been 
 pursued by me for a long series of years, with sig- 
 nal success to my own private interests, the indi- 
 vidual interests and happiness of my servants, and 
 with the result of an entire change in theii' moral 
 and rehgious character, and their habits of industry 
 and submission to superiors." 
 
 In the report for the year 1843 a lady writes to 
 him : " I have from childhood felt a deep interest. 
 
148 Plantation Life 
 
 and have been much engaged in the rehgious in- 
 struction of the colored people. I have used Brown's 
 Catechism always. Your book meets fully my views 
 and wishes," etc. 
 
 His extensive correspondence all over the South 
 brings to light many a faithful minister with a kin- 
 dred zeal, giving the half or all his time to the reli- 
 gious instruction of the negro. 
 
 In the second annual report he quotes as follows 
 from letters: "A clergyman in Natchez writes: 'I 
 have committed to me the instruction of the negroes 
 on five plantations, in all about three hundred, the 
 owners of whom are professors of religion. I usually 
 preach three times on the Sabbath, and after each 
 sermon I spend a short time catechising. I have 
 occasionally meetings for inquiry.' 
 
 *Trom Oakland College, Mississippi, one writes: 
 ' I have three or four meetings on tho Sabbath. I 
 preach once in a fortnight in the church, where 
 about three hundred blacks assemble. Five of the 
 plantations which I attend are wdthin two miles of 
 the church ; four others between four and six miles. 
 ... I endeavor to visit*all the plantations once in 
 
Before Emancipation. 149 
 
 two weeks. I go among the people, talk with them 
 face to face, \dsit the sick, and pray with them.' 
 
 "From the Savannah river: "I visit eighteen 
 plantations every two weeks ; catechise the childi'en, 
 and pray with the sick in the week. Preach twice 
 or thrice on the Sabbath. The OT\-ners have built 
 three good chm'ches at their o^vn expense, all 
 framed , 290 members have been added, and about 
 400 children are instructed each week.' " 
 
 We go outside of our record to add an additional 
 illustrative item, for which we are indebted to the 
 Southwestern Presbyterian. Speaking of Eev. James 
 SmyHe, Eev. Heniy McDonald writes in its columns : 
 "In his old age, Mr. Smvlie devoted his time exclu- 
 sively to the religion of the negroes. He had a 
 large congregation of them. In addition to preach- 
 ing the gospel to them, and reading to them the 
 Scriptures, he taught them the Catechism. He used 
 not only the Primary Catechism, but the Shorter 
 Catechism of the "Westminster Assembly. Large 
 classes of them could recite the whole of that cate- 
 chism. He prepared a catechism for the colored 
 people, which was adopted and recommended by 
 
150 Plantation Lite 
 
 the Synod of Mississippi. This was before Dr» 
 Jones published his catechism for them.' 
 
 I cannot take up the space necessary to give 
 specimens of the reports, resolutions and narratives 
 passed or adopted by ecclesiastical bodies as they 
 are given at length in these reports. The informa- 
 tion "which they incidentally communicated shows, 
 that there was a most wonderful awakening upon 
 this subject throughout the Southern Zion. Equal 
 space is impartially given in these reports (which 
 you "will search in vain to ascertain the missionary's 
 denominational predilections) to the proceedings of 
 Conferences, Associations, Councils, and Synods; and 
 it is indeed hard to ascertain to which denomination 
 of the one Holy Catholic Church — Methodist, Baj)- 
 tist, Episcopal, or Presbyterian — belongs the honor 
 of marching in the van of this host of southern 
 slave-holding Christians, intent upon conquering by 
 truth and love Africa-in-America for Christ. 
 
 The full particulars of this evangelistic work 
 among the negroes by southern Christians may 
 never be written upon earth, but they are certainly 
 inscribed by the recording angel in " The Book of 
 Kecord of the Chronicles" of Heaven; and to their- 
 
Before Ejiancipation. 151 
 
 everlasting honor they will be read out by the King- 
 himself in the presence of an assembled universe, 
 what day the "books shall be opened," and "God 
 shall bring every work into judgment, with every 
 secret thing, whether it be good or eviL" 
 
CHAPTEE XVIII. 
 
 TEE SEA-BOARD OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 
 
 "Lands intersected by a narrow frith, 
 Abhor each other. Mountains interposed, 
 Make enemies of nations, who had else 
 Like kindred droj^s been mingled into one. " 
 
 — Cowper. 
 
 WHILE not foes, only tlie beautiful and narrow 
 Savannah divides the Georgia sea-board from 
 the South Carolina coast. The same features mark 
 the landscape, the fringe of long, narrow, low islands 
 crowned with live oak, cedar, palmetto and myrtle, 
 and beating back the thundering surf ; the wide 
 waving salt marshes, broken here and there by broad, 
 deep estuaries, and everywhere intersected by wind- 
 ing streams, as the tide rises or falls, now filling, 
 now receding from the mud banks, and periodically 
 overflowing, in wide inundation, the meadows ; and 
 gleaming like ribbons of silver upon a robe of green, 
 and stocked with fish; high, yellow, sandy, pine- 
 covered bluffs, ornamented with planters' summer 
 152 
 
Plantation Life 153 
 
 residences; broad stretches of rich alluvial lands, 
 waving with golden rice or snowy with Sea Island 
 cotton; boundless forests of long-leaf pine, inter- 
 sected by swamps; woods fragrant with magnoha 
 and yellow jessamine, and fields and forests abound- 
 ing with small and large game. "Was it a wonder 
 that one of the old na^dgators (Sii' Walter Raleigh, I 
 beheve) thus wrote of it: "The great spreading 
 oaks, the infinite store of cedars, the palms and bay 
 trees of so sovereign odor that balm smelleth no- 
 thing in comparison ; the meadows divided asunder 
 into isles and islets, interlacing one another — these 
 made the place so pleasant that those who are mel- 
 anchohc would be forced to change their humor." 
 
 'WTiether it was due to the sameness of origin, or 
 shaping influence of similar environment, the inhab- 
 itants of these two sections of the South, in one of 
 which the writer had his experience of slaveiy, as 
 before described, were, in many respects, strikingly 
 alike. There was the same refinement and open- 
 handed hospitality, the same fondness in the men 
 for out-door sports, and skillful use of gun and rod, 
 and splendid horsemanship. Their speech, too, was 
 alike. Competent critics have aSlrmGd that nowhere 
 
151 Plantation Life 
 
 in the world was the Englisli language spoken in 
 greater puiity than among the low country people 
 of these two sister States. The relations between 
 slave and master were such as have already been 
 described as prevailing on the Georgia sea-coast. 
 The negro population was vastly in excess of the 
 white, but perfectly orderly. 
 
 To a friend, a minister of the same church with 
 myself, who, consecrated to the w^ork from student 
 days to the war, labored in this earthly paradise, I am 
 indebted for the following information concerning 
 the efforts of the church to give the gospel to the 
 negro in their region. I give it in his language : 
 
 " Let me jot down some statements which may be 
 of use to you: 
 
 " 1. Previously to the war, the coast of South Car- 
 ohna was covered by a network of missions among 
 the slaves, conducted by the Methodist Episcopal 
 Church, South. These missions were not the same 
 as the circuits, nor were they embraced in them, but 
 were served by separate ministers devoted to them. 
 They were mainly supported by the planters. Be- 
 sides preaching, the functions of the missionaries 
 included catechising of the children, and vis- 
 
Before Emancipation. 155 
 
 iting the sick on the plantations. It was a great 
 work. 
 
 " 2. The pastors of the Presbyterian church regu- 
 larly preached to the colored people, large numbers 
 of whom were members of their churches. In addi- 
 tion to this, some of them preached regularly on 
 plantations, catechising the negro children and 
 youth, and visiting the sick. This was also a great 
 work. 
 
 " 3. The ministers of other Evangelical denomina- 
 tions partook in similar labors. In the country 
 along the San tee Eiver, Eev. Alexander Glen- 
 nie, an Episcopal clerg^^man, devoted special atten- 
 tion to the reHgious instruction of the negroes."* 
 "Bishop Gadsden, of South Carolina, has this to 
 say of Bev. Stephen Elliott, for so many years 
 the eloquent preacher and revered Bishop of the 
 Episcopal church in Georgia. He built a chapel, at 
 his own expense, for the colored people in Prince 
 Wilham's parish, and resigned his white charge that 
 
 * Tlie Eev. Benjamin Webb, a minister of the same church, 
 converted under Dr. Daniel Baker's preaching, did excellent 
 service as a missionary to the blacks in Beaufort District. — 
 Eci\ Br. B. M. Palmer. 
 
156 Plantation Lite 
 
 he might devote his entire care to the population of 
 that parish; doing it * zealously, faithfully and gra- 
 tuitously.^ 
 
 "4. In cases in -which families, or members of 
 families, were pious, great attention was bestowed 
 upon the instruction of the slaves, especially the 
 children. Sabbath schools on plantations were main- 
 tained. 
 
 " 5. A special enterprise in 1848 was begun for the 
 more thorough-going evangelization of the colored 
 people in Charleston, under the auspices of the Rev. 
 John B. Adger, D. T>., and the session of the Second 
 Presbyterian Church. A brick house was built at a 
 cost of seven thousand five hundred dollars. In 1859, 
 in consequence of the enormous growth of the con- 
 gregation, another church buildiug, which cost 
 twenty-five thousand dollars, contributed hy the 
 citizens of Charleston, was dedicated. This house 
 was one hundred feet long by eighty broad, and was 
 on a basement, divided into two rooms, which af- 
 forded ample conveniences for prayer-meetings, cat- 
 echising of classes, and personal instruction of can- 
 didates for membership. From the first, the great 
 building was filled, the blacks occupyiug the main 
 
B.EFOEE Emancipation. 157 
 
 floor, and the whites the galleries, whicn seated two 
 hundred and fifty persons ! 
 
 " The enterprise began as a branch congregation 
 of the Second Presbyterian church ; then became a 
 missionary church, under Rev. J. L. Girardeau, evan- 
 gelist of Charleston Presbytery ; and, finally, in con- 
 sequence of the admission of white members, a white 
 church with a white session ! 
 
 " The close of the war found it with exactly five 
 hundred colored members, and nearly one hundred 
 white. Such was its growth from organization as a 
 mission church, in 1857, with only forty-eight mem- 
 bers." 
 
 Presbyterian readers need not be informed that 
 the faithful minister thus mentioned as connected 
 with this remarkable enterprise is none other than 
 the learned and able Professor of Theology in our 
 beloved school of the prophets, in Columbia, S. C, 
 Rev. John L. Girardeau, D. T>. 
 
 We doubt if the honored position to which he had 
 been called by the unanimous voice of his church, 
 and for so long a time has ably filled, gives a satis- 
 faction greater than that which fills his soul, wdien 
 he recalls the work done for his Master among the 
 
158 Plantation Lite 
 
 lowly, gathered within the sacred walls of Zion 
 church, erected by Southern slave-holders for the 
 slave. 
 
 "We take the liberty of supplementing the brief 
 account already quoted of this remarkable work, by 
 the following fuller statement, which w^e find in the 
 Southern Presbyterian Review , of July, 1854. It is 
 no violence of confidence to say that the article, al- 
 though anonymous, is from the pen of the honored 
 missionary himself. It is headed, "Report of a Con- 
 ference by Presbytery (Charleston Presbyteiy) on 
 the Subject of the Organization, Instruction and 
 Discipline of the Colored People." The debate, 
 covering all the ground as it did, and participated 
 in by men having a practical acquaintance with the 
 subject, must have been deeply interesting, as the 
 report shows it was thorough and able. We extract 
 the paragraph containing evident reference to Zion 
 church, in Charleston; 
 
 "The question of the segregation of the blacks 
 from the whites in public worship was not at that 
 time considered, simply because the policy of Pres- 
 bytery in that matter had already been settled and 
 openly adopted. It has been the almost universal 
 
Before Ema2?cipation. 159 
 
 practice of our ministers for many years to convene 
 the people into separate congregations, and dispense 
 to them instruction suited to their exigencies ; and 
 at the meeting of this Presbytery at Barnwell, in 
 April, 1847, a formal sanction was afforded to this 
 practice by the extension of its approval and patron- 
 age to a scheme, contemplating the estabhshment of 
 a separate congregation of blacks of the Second 
 Presbyterian chui'ch in Charleston. 
 
 " The reasons for the collection of the colored peo- 
 ple into distinct congregations have been ably stated 
 by Eev. J. B. Adger in a sermon preached in Charles- 
 ton, May 9th, 1847, and by Hev. Dr. Thornwell, in a 
 <jritical notice of this discourse, published shortly af- 
 ter its delivery, in the Southern Presbyterian lie- 
 mew. The want of room in all our church edifices, 
 the necessity of a style of instruction adapted to the 
 capacities and attainments of the colored population, 
 and their destitute and neglected condition, under 
 the pressure of powerful temptations, constitute co- 
 gent arguments in favor of the erection of separate 
 congTegations for their benefit. It cannot be denied 
 that there are great advantages resulting from the 
 union of masters and servants in the solemn offices 
 
160 Plantation Life 
 
 of religion — arlYautages secured by the conviction 
 produced by this association of a common origin, a 
 common relation to God, and a common interest in 
 the great scheme of redemption through the blood 
 of Christ. But the question, as has been observed^ 
 was soon found to be ' partial separation or a partial 
 diffusion of the gospel among the slaves, and an en- 
 larged philanthropy prevailed over sentiment/ It 
 ought to be kept in mind that this separation into 
 distinct congregations does not amount to a compul- 
 sory or total exclusion of the servants from access to 
 the churches in which their masters worship. They 
 are at liberty to associate with them in worship 
 whenever they will, while these edifices and religious- 
 services, intended especially for then* benefit, are 
 standing invitations to those among them for whose 
 welfare no man cares, to participate in the blessings 
 provided by the gospel. It is also to be remembered 
 that a complete separation cannot, and in fact does 
 not, take place under this plan, inasmuch as it con- 
 templates the presence of some white persons — a 
 measure, indeed, made necessary by civil statutes. 
 As, therefore, servants are not debarred from wor- 
 shiping at pleasure with their masters, as it is ex- 
 
Before Emancipation. 161 
 
 pected that in all tlieii' assemblages -white persons 
 should be present, and as these congregations are 
 serred by white ministers, themselves responsible to 
 ecclesiastical courts representing large sections of the 
 community, it is next to impossible that a class wor- 
 ship — as it is frequently objected — should be the re- 
 sult of the enforcement of this schenie, or that it 
 should tend to foster feelings of insubordination and 
 aggravate the prejudices of caste, by connecting them 
 with the institutions of rehgion." 
 
 How far this remarkable and successful experi- 
 ment of a separate organization in part of colored 
 people, officered entii-ely by white persons, would, 
 had our civil war not intenened, have won its way 
 into the dense mass of the slave population, and to 
 what extent it would have shaped southern evan- 
 gelization of the negro, it were idle now to speculate. 
 Besides, its great success in winning from among 
 them scores of precious souls for Christ, the history 
 is important and valuable as furnishing another 
 striking proof of the southern slaveholders' fidelity 
 to the hiofhest interests of the slave. 
 
CHAPTEE XIX. 
 
 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF ANOTHER MIS- 
 SIONARY TO THE BLACKS. 
 
 Bev. Dr. Mallard: 
 
 MY Deae Brother, — I hardly know how to com- 
 mnnicate personal reminiscences. They would 
 be nnroerous and detailed. Perhaps I had better 
 not enter the edge of the forest. But I adventure a 
 few which may be of some use to you ; if not, throw 
 them out. Of course you do not expect to mention 
 my name. 
 
 I remember that before I became a preacher, I 
 used to hold meetings on my father's plantation, the 
 cotton house affording a convenient place of assem- 
 blage. Previously, the plantation resounded with the 
 sounds of jollity — the merrj' strains of the fiddle, the 
 measured beat of the "quaw sticks," and the rhyth- 
 mical shuffling and patting of the feet in the Ethio- 
 pian jig. Now, the fiddle and the quaw sticks were 
 abandoned, and the light, carnal song gave way to 
 
 162 
 
Plantation Life 1G3 
 
 psalms and hymns. The congregations were numer- 
 ous and attentive, and a genuine revival of religion 
 seemed to obtain. I can never forget with what en- 
 .thusiasm they used to sing their own improvised 
 "spiritual:" 
 
 "My brother, you promised Jesus, 
 My brother, you promised Jesus, 
 My brother, you promised Jesus, 
 
 To either fight or die. 
 Oh, I wish I was there, 
 To hear my Jesus' orders, 
 Oh, I wish I was there, Lord, 
 
 To wear my starry crown. " 
 
 On another plantation which I was in the habit 
 of visiting, a prayer-meeting was commenced by one 
 or two young men, which became more and more 
 solemn, until the rehgions interest grew intense, and 
 a powerful revival took place, which involved the 
 white family and their neighbors. The results of 
 that meeting were marked, and some of its fruits re- 
 main to this day. If ever I witnessed an out-pour- 
 ing of the Spirit, I did then. 
 
 While teaching school in another place, it was my 
 custom to visit plantations in rotation, on certain af- 
 
164 Plantation Life 
 
 ternoons of the week, and catechise and exhort the 
 slaves. I knew of but one j^lanter in that commu- 
 nity who objected to this practice, and he w^as an ir- 
 rehgious man. On Sabbath, after the regular ser- 
 vices of the sanctuary had been held, and the white 
 congregation had dispersed, the negroes would crowd 
 the church building, and, standing on the pulpit 
 steps, I would address them. Their feelings, some- 
 times, were irrepressible. This was with the sanc- 
 tion of the minister and elders. 
 
 While at the Theological Seminaiy, I only re- 
 frained from going on a foreign mission because I 
 felt it to be my duty to preach to the mass of slaves 
 on the sea-board of South Carolina. Having rejected, 
 after licensure, a call to a large and important church 
 which had very few negroes connected wdth it, I ac- 
 cepted an invitation to preach temporarily to a small 
 church which was surrounded by a dense body of 
 slaves. The scenes on Sabbath were affecting. The 
 negroes came in crowds from two parishes. Often 
 have I seen (a scene, I reckon, not often witnessed) 
 groups of them "double quicking" in the roads, in 
 order to reach the church in time. Trotting to 
 church! The white service (as many negroes as 
 
Befoee Em.\ncipation. 165 
 
 could attendiug) being over, the slaves would pour 
 in and throng- the seats vacated by their masters — 
 yes, crowd the building up to the pulj)it. I have 
 seen them rock to and fro under the influence of 
 their feelings, like a wood in a storm. What sing- 
 ing! WTiat hearty hand-shakings after the ser- 
 vice ! I have had my finger joints stripped of the 
 scarf skin in consequence of them. Upon leaving 
 the church, after the last mournful service with 
 them, and going to my vehicle, which was some 
 hundred yards distant, a poor little native African 
 woman followed me, weeping and crying out : " O, 
 massa, you goin' to leave us 1 O, massa, for Jesus' 
 sake, don't leave us !" I had made an engagement 
 with another chui'ch, or the poor little Afi'ican's plea 
 might have prevailed. When next I visited that 
 people, I asked after my little African friend. " She 
 crossed over, sir," was the answer. May we meet 
 "when parting will be no more, the song to Jesus 
 never cease!" 
 
 The church to which I next went was in a differ- 
 ent part of the sea-board of South Carolina. In 
 connection with it, I was ordained, and here my 
 work began in earnest. The congregation included 
 
166 Plantation Life 
 
 some of the most cultivated gentlemen of the State. 
 They were cordially in favor of the religious instruc- 
 tion of the slaves. The vrork among them consisted 
 of preaching to them on Sabbath noons, in the church 
 building in v^hich their masters had just worshiped, 
 preaching to them again in the afternoons on the 
 plantations, and preaching at night, to mixed con- 
 gregations of whites and blacks. This in summer. 
 In winter, I preached at night on the plantations, 
 often reaching home after midnight. Many a time 
 I have seen the slaves gathered on their master's 
 piazzas for worship, and when it was very cold, in 
 their dining-rooms and their sitting-rooms. The 
 family and the servants would worship together. 
 This was common, and the fact deserves to be sig- 
 nalized. In order better to compass the work, I se- 
 lected four points in the congregational territory, 
 the diameter of which was about twenty miles in one 
 direction, and purposed to secure the erection of 
 meeting-houses which would each be central to 
 several plantations, in order to economize labor and 
 bring the gospel more frequently in contact with 
 the people, by preaching once a month, on Sab- 
 baths, at those points. This plan was prevented of 
 
Before Emajtcipation. 167 
 
 a<JComplishment by my removal to the missionary 
 "u-ork in Charleston. It is curious that after the war 
 the colored people erected houses of worship at 
 those veiy points. 
 
 My last service with the negroes at this church I 
 will never forget. The final words had been spoken 
 to the white congregation, and they had retired. 
 When a tempest of emotion was shaking me behind 
 the desk, the tramp of a great multitude was heard 
 as the negroes poured into the building, and occu- 
 pied all available space up to the httle old wine-glass 
 shaped pulpit. "WTien approaching the conclusion of 
 the sermon, I turned to the unconverted, asked what 
 I should say to them, and called on them to come to 
 Jesus. At this moment the great mass of the con- 
 gregation simultaneously broke down, dropped their 
 heads to their knees, and uttered a wail which 
 seemed to prelude the judgment. Poor people ! 
 they had deeply appreciated the preaching of the 
 gospel to them. 
 
 Into the details of the work in Charleston I can- 
 not enter. They would occupy too much space. It 
 lasted (with me) from 1854 to 1862. I have some- 
 times thought I devoted too much time to it. I was 
 
168 Plantation Life 
 
 absorbed in it. But the labor was not in vain, I 
 trust. Besides Sabbath preaching, most of the nights 
 in the week were spent at the church in the dis- 
 charge of various duties — holding prayer-meetings, 
 catechising classes, administering discipline, settling 
 difficulties and performing marriage ceremonies. 
 Often have I sat for over an hour in a cold room, in- 
 structing individual inquirers and candidates for 
 membership ; often have I risen in the night to visit 
 the sick and dying and administer baptism to ill 
 children. I made it a duty to attend all their fu- 
 nerals and conduct them. 
 
 Just two extreme instances of dying experience I 
 will give you. One was that of a servant of a dis- 
 tinguished judge. He was dying. As I entered 
 his room, he rubbed his hands together and chuckled 
 with a hilarious delight, like that of a boy going 
 home on Christmas Eve, and exclaimed : " I'm going 
 home ! Oh, how glad I am !" So he passed away. 
 Another was that of my own servant. He was reared 
 by me ; was a bad boy ; when he grew up, attended 
 my church, professed conversion, and was seized not 
 very long after with galloping consumption. He 
 •was in terror. His sins filled him with dismay. I 
 
Before Emai^cipation. 169 
 
 labored with him, but he refused to be comforted. 
 At last, not long before his departure, the light of 
 God's reconciled countenance broke upon the mid- 
 night of his soul. From that time he had perfect 
 peace, and breathed his last, I firmly believe, on the 
 bosom of his Saviour. Freely did my tears flow 
 ■while I was uttering the last words of prayer and 
 exhortation over his encoffined body. His mother, 
 also my servant, died after him, during the war, 
 when I was absent in Virginia. She kept calling for 
 me till she expired. Tell me that there was no true, 
 deep affection of masters to slaves, and slaves to mas- 
 ters ! It was often Hke that between near relatives. 
 
 The most glorious work of grace I ever felt or 
 witnessed was one which occurred in 1858, in con- 
 nection with this missionary work in Charleston. It 
 began with a remarkable exhibition of the Spirit's 
 supernatural power. For eight weeks, night after 
 night, save Saturday nights, I preached to dense 
 and deeply-moved congregations. The result I 
 have given in the general statement prefixed. 
 
 The work steadily and rapidly grew, until it was 
 arrested by the war. I could give you some inci- 
 dents that would be interesting, but time will not. 
 
170 Plantation Life 
 
 permit. One I mention, in which the ludicrous and 
 pathetic were blended, and the saying was fulfilled, 
 that the fountains of laughter and tears are near to 
 each other. After a session had been formed, there 
 came before it for admission into the church a small 
 native African, whose name was Cudjo. The follow- 
 ing colloquy occurred between the minister and the 
 candidate: "Cudjo, you want to jom the church?" 
 " Yessy, massa. " " Cudjo, you love Jesus V " Yessy, 
 massa; me lub Jesus." 'Cudjo, you expect to see 
 Jesus ? " "Oh, yessy, massa ; me spec I's see Jesus." 
 "When he sees you coming, what do you think Jesus 
 will say?" "He say, "Cudjo, you come?' I say, 
 * Yessy, ma'am, I come. ' " Here he struck his hands 
 together, and the session laughed and cried at the 
 same time. 
 
 The conduct of this church after the war justified 
 the wisdom of those who projected it. They clung 
 to the white people. One of the first invitations in 
 writing which I received upon my return from im- 
 prisonment at Johnson's Island, and while yet in 
 the interior of the State, where my family were 
 refugees, in July, 1865, to resume labor, was fr(^m 
 this colored membership, entreating me to coiiio 
 
Befoee Emancipation. 171 
 
 back and preach to them as of old. For years they 
 declined to separate themselves from the Southern 
 Presbyterian Church, and even after its Assembly 
 had, in 1874, recommended an organic separation 
 of the whites and blacks, they continued to main- 
 tain an independent position. Only at a late date 
 did they resolve to connect themselves with the 
 Northern Presbyterian Church. iBut I must close, 
 lest I tire you. 
 
 I am, dear brother, yours in the Lord, 
 
 * * * 
 
 I make no apology for giving the above letter just 
 as it was written, in response to my request for per- 
 sonal reminiscences of work among the blacks. It 
 was not in my heart to alter a word or suppress a 
 hne of that which I have not been able to read a 
 single time without tears. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 THE FIRST SOVTHERN GENERAL ASSEMBLY, 
 
 •FIRST DAY. 
 
 "Augusta, Ga., Dec. 4, 1861. 
 ' ' The First General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church 
 in the Confederate States met on this clay, at 11 o'clock, in 
 the First Presbyterian Church. " 
 
 SUCH is the opening sentence of the minutes oi 
 that memorable body, in which oiii' distinctive 
 existence as a church began, as reported in the Avr 
 gusta Chronicle and Sentinel ; for the use of which 
 I am indebted to the com-tesy of Eev. Dr. J. H. 
 Bryson, of Huntsville, Ala. 
 
 It was an epoch pregnant with important events 
 in church and state. We pause to rapidly sketch 
 them. South Carolina, seceding from the Union, 
 had been swiftly followed, and in the order here 
 named, by Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, 
 and Louisiana. These seven States, meeting by 
 
 chosen representatives in Montgomery, Ala., had 
 172 
 
Before Emancipation. 175 
 
 formed a provisional government for one year, to 
 become thereafter permanent and upon tlie model 
 of that from which they had withdrawn. In April 
 the guns of Fort Sumter opened the fight. Lincoln 
 had then thrown down the gauge of battle in his 
 call for 75,000 men; the Confederate Government 
 liad accepted it, in its summons for volimteers. 
 Four more States, halting before, now wheeled into 
 line — Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Ten- 
 nessee — eleven in all. 
 
 With a daring hopefulness, the capital was now 
 transferred to Pdchmond, Va. In the first serious 
 trial of strength at Manassas, the Confederate arms 
 had triumphed; other and less important engage- 
 ments had marked the first year of the war, the 
 most notable being Price's success at Oak Hill. In 
 his summing up of the year, Alexander Stephens, 
 in his School History, says: "The contest upon the 
 whole, thus far, was greatly to the advantage of the 
 Confederates, in view of the number of victories 
 achieved and prisoners captured." The enemy had, 
 however, effected a lodgment upon the Atlantic 
 coast of the young Confederacy, by the reduction of 
 the forts at Hatteras Inlet, N. C, and Port Eoyal, 
 
174 Plantation Life 
 
 S. C Fired by accident, tlie heart of Charleston 
 •was then being burnt out by a great conflagration. 
 
 In the midst of these exciting events, with the 
 capital threatened by a powerful Northern army, a 
 beautiful Southern city on fire, the white tents of 
 the foe dotting the shores of an adjoining State, and 
 war ships, like watch dogs, guarding all the coast, 
 the delegates appointed by the Southern Presbyte- 
 ries met to form a Southern General Assembly. In 
 the judgment of most of the commissioners, the sep- 
 aration of the States into two republics, rendered 
 desirable, if not compulsory, two separate churches. 
 I3ut there were other and more imperious causes. 
 The celebrated "Spring resolutions" had made it 
 impossible for a Southerner to be at once loyal to 
 his government and his church. Kev. "William Ba- 
 ker, a Southerner, present at the Northern General 
 Assembly the previous spring, in Philadelphia, had 
 accounted for the scantiness of the delegation from 
 the South by the poverty of its ministers. It is cer- 
 tain that some refused to attend because of the dan- 
 ger, and others because they saw that separation of 
 state involved separation of church. 
 
 A convention of delegates had previously met in 
 
Before Emancipation. 175 
 
 Atlanta, Ga , and invited tlie I'resbyteries at their 
 tlien approaching fall meetings to appoint commis- 
 sioners to meet in Augusta, Ga., to form a General 
 Assembly. Meeting at the time appointed, Kev. 
 Dr. John N. Waddel, \Yho, in conjunction with Rev. 
 Dr. John H. Gray and Professor Joseph Jones, of 
 Augusta, Ga., had been selected by a majority of 
 the Presbj'teries "to act as a committee of commis- 
 sioners," nominated Eev. Dr. Francis McFarland as 
 temporary presiding oScer. Elected by acclama- 
 tion, by his nomination Eev. Dr. B. -M. Palmer was 
 unanimously selected to preach the opening sermon, 
 and at the next session was elected ^Moderator by 
 acclamation. 
 
 Present as a visitor in attendance upon Eev, Dr. 
 Charles Colcock Jones, then an invahd, but a com- 
 missioner from the Presbytery of Georgia, I was an 
 eye-witness of what I now proceed with pleasui-e to 
 describe and relate. 
 
 The place of the first General Assembly was well 
 chosen. Augusta, sitting a queen upon the winding 
 Savannah, on the line between two great common- 
 wealths, and central to the entire Confederacy, was, 
 by its location, its proverbial culture and hospitality, 
 
176 Plantation Life 
 
 and its handsome First churcli embowered in its 
 sliady grove — a fitting birthplace for the new Pres- 
 byterian church. 
 
 The personnel of the Assembly was remarkable. 
 The Presbyteries, realizing the gravity of the situa- 
 tion, had sent their oldest, wisest, most experienced, 
 and, in a word, most suitable men. Without attempt- 
 ing to exhaust the list, let me call over some of the 
 names upon its roll, of its men illustrious in divinity 
 and law. The Synod of Alabama sent such men as 
 Kev. Alexander McCorkle, K. B. White, D. D.; Elder 
 Hon. W. B. Webb. Arkansas— Eev. Thos. R. 
 Welsh and the venerable missionary, C. Kingsbury, 
 D. D. From the Synod of Baltimore came John H. 
 Bocock, D. D., Wm. H. Foote, D. D., and Hon. J. 
 D. Armstrong. Georgia sent N. A. Pratt, D. D., 
 John S. Wilson, D. D., C. C. Jones, D. D., Joseph 
 R. Wilson, D. D., and Elders David Ardis, Hon. 
 Wm. A. Forward and Wm. L. Mitchell. Memphis — 
 John N. Waddel, D. D., and Hon. J. T. Swayne. 
 Mississippi — John Hunter, D. D., B. M. Palmer, 
 D. D., James A. Lyon, D. D., Rev. R. Mclnnis, and 
 Elders Wm. C. Black and David Hadden. Nash- 
 viUe— R. B. McMuUen, D. D. North Carolina— R. 
 
Before Emancipation. 177 
 
 H. Morrison, D. D., R. Hett Chapman, D. D., Drury 
 Lacy, D. D., and Elders Prof. Charles Phillips and 
 Hon. J. G. Sheperd. South Carolina — James H. 
 Thomwell, D. D., Aaron W, Leland, D. D., J. Leigh- 
 ton Wilson, D. D., John B. Adger, D. D., D. Mc- 
 Neill Turner, and Elders Hon. W. PeiTonneau Fin- 
 ley, J. S. Thompson, Hon. Thomas C. Perrin and 
 Chancellor Job Johnstone. Synod of Texas — R. Y7. 
 Bailey, D. T>., and Eev. R. .F. Bunting. Synod of 
 Virginia — Theodorick Pryor, D. D., Francis McFar- 
 land, D. D , James B. Ramsay, D. D., Samuel R. 
 Houston, Pe5i;on HaiTison, Professor John L. Camp- 
 bell, Hon. W. F. C. Gregory, etc. 
 
 Although to an uncommon extent composed of 
 men entitled by their ability, years, experience and 
 prominence in church and state to lead, there was 
 an entire absence of a domineering spirit, and the 
 utmost freedom of debate, in which there was a gen- 
 eral participation. Even that prince of men, of 
 scholars and theologians. Rev. Dr. Thomwell, with 
 all his acknowledged leadership, did not always 
 carry his point, and shaped the actions of the Assem- 
 bly by the masterly ability with which he advocated 
 his views of the topics discussed, rather than by his 
 
178 Plantation Life 
 
 powerful personal influence. Never were ecclesiastical 
 debates abler, as might have been anticipated from 
 the material composing this General Assembly. Sit- 
 ting in the midst of a war of tremendous proportions, 
 mth their homes threatened by invasion, and sons, 
 relatives and friends exposed to the deadly hazard 
 of battle, these servants of God spent eleven days in 
 deliberately discussing the problems presented by 
 the times for adjustment, and in perfecting the or- 
 ganization of the infant church. By their wise 
 counsels, that church was provided Avith all the re- 
 quisite machinery of executive committees ; commit- 
 tees, in accordance with the views of Dr. Thornwell, 
 so long and ably advocated by him, in direct rela- 
 tionship to the General Assembly, taking the place 
 of cumbrous, irresponsible boards. To an executive 
 committee, located in New Orleans, the Indian mis- 
 sion, the only part of the foreign field to which the 
 l)lockade permitted access, was transferred without 
 a jar; and provision made for the transmission of 
 iunds to such southern missionaries outside the 
 United States as wished to retain their connection 
 with our church. 
 
 "What was determined with regard to the negro 
 
Before Emancipation. 179 
 
 race, which occupied a large part of the time and 
 attention of this General Assembly, is reserved for 
 the next letter. 
 
 . Thus our beloved church sprang into existence, 
 like Minerva from Jupiter's brain, full statured and 
 in complete panoply ; or, rather, came into being, 
 and by the same creative word as the first Adam 
 did, not a feeble infant, but a strong and gi*own-up 
 man 
 
 Characterized- throughout l^y a prayerful spirit, 
 which seemed, together with the felt gravity of the 
 times, to have repressed every exciting allusion to 
 political and national affairs, this remarkable As- 
 sembly, having finished its appointed task, the Mod- 
 erator announced that there was no further business 
 before it; whereupon, a member. Dr. McMullen, 
 arose and said : " Brethren, the Lord has blessed 
 us in an extraordinary degi'ee. The unanimity and 
 cordiahty with which everything has been transacted 
 seems to me to be very remarkable, and it would be 
 to me very gratifying if we could spend an hour this 
 evening in devotional exercises ; it would be a de- 
 hghtful closing of this Assembly." 
 
 The venerable Dr. Leland, thereupon, slowly ris- 
 
180 Plajttation Iitpb 
 
 ing to his feet, observed: "It becomes ns to adopt 
 tbat proposition and to meet at seven o'clock. Let 
 us this night acknowledge the good hand of God 
 upon us. I do not feel as if we could sej)arate by 
 any sudden adjournment. The best feeHng of every 
 heart of this Assembly will be greatly cheered by 
 such a mode of terminating our deliberations. Let 
 us close these meetings with feelings of love and 
 kindness." 
 
 Dr. McFarland immediately responded : " That 
 would, indeed, be very pleasant to me. I do trust 
 that we may part with feelings of love and gratitude 
 to Almighty God, such as we never felt before, and 
 that the Moderator (Dr. Palmer), may carry our 
 hearts as one heart up to the heavenly thi'one. 
 
 Said Dr. Pryor: "I think the suggestion of Dr. 
 McMullen eminently proper, and I rise for the pur- 
 pose of seconding his motion." 
 
 The motion adopted, the Assembly coming to- 
 gether in the evening, after the transaction of some 
 matters of business occupying only a few minutes, 
 closed its deliberations by one entire session devoted 
 to worship with the congregation. The 508th hymn 
 was sung, prayer offered hy Dr. McFarland, Pvomans 
 
Befobe Emancipation. 181 
 
 Tiii. was read, the 580tli hymn sung, when the Mod- 
 erator, Rev. Dr. Palmer, rose and said : 
 
 " My brethren, the fulness of this Assembly, drawn 
 from all parts of our extended Confederacy, dui'ing 
 a season of extraordinary peril and darkness, is suf- 
 ficient proof that all our hearts were impressed vdih. 
 the importance of this convention. The discussions 
 through which we have passed, during the session of 
 this Assembly, have opened the fundamental princi- 
 ples of our government, and, to some extent, of our 
 faith. And that we have been able to set this church 
 forward fully equipped, and in doing so to uncover 
 all these principles, and to do it without a jar, is a 
 sufficient proof that we have enjoyed the guidance of 
 God's Spirit. The fact, too, that we have been led 
 to open our hearts towards our brethren of the great 
 Presbyterian family who are not gathered under the 
 same roof with ourselves, opening in the near future 
 the prospect of reunion with those of like faith with 
 ourselves, is an additional proof that oui* hearts have 
 been moved by the Spirit of grace. And now we 
 are to part ; and as we extend the hand of parting, 
 there will scarcely be an eye that will not moisten, 
 scarcely a heart that will not throb ; we are made to 
 
182 PlajntatiOx^ Lite. 
 
 feel, as we return to our several homes, that it has 
 been indeed a privilege to come up here as to a 
 mount of ordinances. Our language will be the lan- 
 guage of Peter to his Master on the mount : ' Lord, 
 it is good for us to be here.' " 
 
 To this Dr. Piyor responded : "I rise, Moderator, 
 to move that this Assembly be now dissolved. We 
 part to meet no more in this world, but it is pleasant 
 to feel that there is a land where we shall meet 
 again — 
 
 ' There, on a green and flowery mount, 
 
 Our happy souls shall meet, 
 And with transporting joy recount 
 The labors of our feet. ' " 
 
 The 342d hymn was then sung, and with prayer 
 and benediction by the Moderator, the memorable 
 first Southern General Assembly was dissolved, and 
 another like it appointed to meet in Memphis the 
 first Thursday in May, 1862. 
 
CHAPTEE XXL 
 
 THE FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY AND THE 
 NEGRO; ITS MANIFESTO ON THE SUBJECT 
 TO THE CHURCH UNIVERSAL. 
 
 WHATEVER may have been the causes of seces- 
 sion and our civil war, it must be admitted 
 that African slavery was the occasion of both. 
 Although it would not be correct to say that the 
 one side fought for the destruction and the other 
 for the preservation of this peculiar institution, its 
 abolition or continuance was, as the event showed, 
 wrapped up in the issues of the war. The first 
 General Assembly was composed of men who, 
 whether of Northern or Southern birth, were al- 
 most, without exception, slaveholders, sincerely con- 
 vinced of the scripturalness of slavery. 
 
 It was with no uncertainty as to their position that 
 this grave and learned and pious assembly of min- 
 isters and elders approached the question of the 
 
 more thorough evangelization of their negro slaves. 
 183 
 
184 Plantation Life. 
 
 Lighted up by the lurid flames of a civil war, the 
 question seemed to have taken on a new interest 
 and assumed larger proportions. "With one accord 
 the Assembly seemed to have felt that, in the peril- 
 ous circumstances surrounding the institution as 
 well as themselves, and the conspicuousness thus 
 given to the Southern Church before the world, 
 there was a special providential call for renewed and 
 intelligent efforts for the salvation of that people, 
 who had now grown in thirty years from two to 
 four millions ! 
 
 Passing by the incidental references, I shall con- 
 fine myself to its dehberate utterances upon the 
 whole subject, as they were given in the address to 
 all the churches of Jesus Christ throughout the 
 world, prepared by Dr. Thornwell, and in Dr. C. C. 
 Jones' discourse to the Assembly itself upon the 
 evangelization of the negro. 
 
 On the morning of the second day of the ses- 
 sion, the following resolution was introduced by Dr. 
 Thornwell, and adopted : 
 
 "Hesolved, That a committee, consisting of one 
 minister and one ruling elder from each of the 
 Synods belonging to this Assembly, be appointed 
 
Before Emancipation. 185 
 
 to prepare an address to all the churches of Jesus 
 Christ throughout the earth, settmg forth the cause 
 of our separation from the Church in the United 
 States, our attitude in relation to slavery, and a 
 general view of the poHcy which, as a church, we 
 propose to follow." (Italics mine.) 
 
 That committee, appointed by Dr. Palmer, the 
 Moderator, in the same session, contained the fol- 
 lowing distinguished names : James H. Thornwell, 
 D. D., Theodoric Prjor, D. D., F. K. Nash, C. C. 
 Jones, D. D., R. B. White, D. D., W. D. Moore, J. 
 H. GiUespie, J. L. Boozer, E. W. Bailey, D. D., J. 
 D. Armstrong, C. PhiUips, Joseph A. Brooks, W. P. 
 Pinley, Samuel McCorkle, W. P. "Webb, William C. 
 Black, T. L. Dunlap, and E. W. Wright. 
 
 On the eighth day their report, taken up from 
 the docket, was, without debate or a dissenting 
 voice, adopted as the utterance of the Southern 
 Church, and under the following resolutions 
 
 " Heso/vedj That the Address to the Churches of 
 Jesus Christ throughout the world, reported and 
 read by Piev. Dr. Thornwell, chairman of the spe- 
 cial committee appointed for that purpose, be re- 
 ceived, and is hereby adopted by this Assembly. 
 
186 Plantation Life 
 
 " Hesolved, That three thousand copies of this 
 address be printed, under the direction of the Stated 
 Clerk, for the use of the Assembly. 
 
 ^'liesolved, That the original address be filed in 
 the archives of the Assembly, and that a paper be 
 attached thereto, to be signed by the Moderator 
 and members of this Assembly." 
 
 It was a deeply interesting spectacle when, at the 
 calling of the Assembly's roll, each member ap- 
 proached the Clerk's desk and signed his name to 
 this magnificent state paper, which bears the stamp 
 of the acute intellect and broad genius of the chair- 
 man, Dr. Thornwell. ^Ye can afford space for only 
 a few extracts from this historical document, and 
 only upon the attitude of the Southern Church 
 toward slaveiy: 
 
 "And here we may venture to lay before the 
 Christian world our views as a church upon the 
 subject of slavery. 
 
 " In the first place, we would have it distinctly 
 understood that, in our ecclesiastical capacity, we 
 are neither the friends nor the foes of slavery ; that 
 is to say, we have no commission either to propa- 
 gate or abolish it. The poUcy of its existence or 
 
Before Emancipation. 187 
 
 non-existence is a question which belongs exclu- 
 sively to the state. We have no right to enjoin it 
 as a duty, or to condemn it as a sin. Our business 
 is "with the duties which spring from the relation; 
 the duties of the master on the one hand, and of 
 their slaves on the other. These duties we are to 
 proclaim and to enforce with spiritual sanctions. 
 The social, civil, political problems connected with 
 this great subject transcend our sphere, as God 
 has not entrusted to his church the organization of 
 society, the construction of governments, nor the 
 allotment of individuals to their various stations. 
 The church has as much right to preach to the 
 monarchies of Europe and the despotisms of Asia 
 the doctrines of republican equality, as to preach to 
 the government of the South the extirpation of 
 slavery. The position is impregnable, unless it 
 can be proved that slavery is a sin. Upon every 
 other hypothesis it is so clearly a question of state, 
 that the proposition would never for a moment have 
 been doubted had there not been a foregone con- 
 clusion in relation to its moral character. 
 
 " Is slavery a sin ? 
 
 "In answering this question as a church, let it 
 
188 Plantation Life 
 
 be distinctly borne in mind that the only rule 
 of judgment is the written Word of God. The 
 church knows nothing of the intuitions of reason, 
 or the deductions of philosophy, except those repro- 
 duced in the sacred canon. She has a positive 
 constitution in the Holy Scriptures, and has no 
 right to utter a syllable upon any subject, except as 
 the Lord puts words in her mouth. She is founded, 
 in other words, upon express revelation. Her creed 
 is an authoritative testimony of God, and not a 
 speculation, and what she proclaims she must pro- 
 claim with the infaUible certainty of faith, and not 
 with the hesitating assent of an opinion. The ques- 
 tion, then, is brought within a narrow compass. 
 Do the Scriptures, directly or indirectly, condemn 
 slavery as a sin? If they do not, the dispute is 
 ended, for the church, without forfeiting her char- 
 acter, dares not go beyond them. If men had 
 drawn their conclusions on this subject only from 
 the Bible, it would no more have entered into any 
 human head to denounce slavery as a sin, than to 
 denounce monarchy, or aristocracy, or poverty. The 
 truth is, men have listened to what they falsely con- 
 sider as primitive intuitions, or as necessary deduc- 
 
Before Emancipation. 189 
 
 tions from primitive cognitions, and then have gone 
 to the Bible to confirm the crotchets of their vain 
 philosophy. They have gone there determined to 
 find a particular result, and the consequence is that 
 they leave with having made, instead of having in- 
 terpreted, Scripture. Slaveiy is no new thing. It 
 has not only existed for ages in the world, "but it 
 has existed under every dispensation of the cove- 
 nant of grace in the church of God. Indeed, the 
 first organization of the church as a visible society 
 separate and distinct from the unbelieving world, 
 was inaugurated in the family of a slaveholder. 
 Among the very first persons to whom the seal of 
 circumcision was affixed, were the slaves of the 
 father of the faithful, some born in his house and 
 some bought with his money. Slavery again ap- 
 pears under the law. God sanctions it in the first 
 table of the Decalogue, and Moses treats it as an 
 institution to be regulated, not abohshed; legiti- 
 mated, not condemned. We come down to the age 
 of the New Testament, and we find it again in the 
 churches founded by the apostles, under the plenary 
 inspiration of the Holy Ghost. These facts are 
 utterly amazing, if slaveiy is the enormous sin which 
 
190 Plantation Life 
 
 its enemies represent it to be. It will not do to say- 
 that the Scriptures have treated it only in a general 
 and incidental way, without any clear implication as 
 to its moral character. Moses surely made it the 
 subject of express and j^ositive legislation, and the 
 apostles are equally exjDlicit in inculcating the duties 
 which spring from both sides of the relation. They 
 treat slaves as bound to obey, and inculcate obedi- 
 ence as an office of religion — a thing wholly self- 
 contradictory, if the authority over them were un- 
 lawful and iniquitous. 
 
 " But what puts the subject in a still clearer light, 
 is the manner in which it is sought to extort from 
 the Scriptures a contrary testimony. The notion of 
 an expHcit and direct condemnation is given up. 
 The attempt is to show that the genius and spirit of 
 Christianity are opposed to it ; that its great cardinal 
 principles of virtue are against it. Much stress is 
 laid upon the Golden Rule, and upon the general 
 denunciations of tyranny and oppression. To all 
 this we reply, that no principle is clearer than that 
 a case positively excepted cannot be included under 
 a general rule. Let us concede for a moment that 
 the laws of love and the condemnation of tyranny 
 
Before Ema-ncipation. 191 
 
 and oppression seem logically to involve, as a result, 
 the condemnation of slavery ; yet if slavery is after- 
 wards expressly mentioned and treated as a lawful 
 relation, it obviously follows, unless Scripture is to 
 be interpreted as inconsistent with itself, that slav- 
 ery is by necessary implication excepted. To say 
 that the prohibition of tyranny and oppression in- 
 clude slavery, is to beg the whole question. Tyranny 
 and oppression involve either the unjust usurpation 
 of, or the unlawful exercise of, power. It is the un- 
 lawfulness in its principle or measure, which consti- 
 tutes the core of the sin. Slavery, therefore, must 
 be proved to be unlawful, before it can be referred 
 to any such category. The master, indeed, may 
 abuse his power, but he oppresses not simply as a 
 master, but as a wicked master, 
 
 " But apart from all this, the law of love is simply 
 the inculcation of universal equity. It implies no- 
 thing as to the existence of various ranks and grada- 
 tions in society. The interpretation which makes it 
 repudiate slavery would make it equally repudiate 
 all social, civil and poHtical inequalities. Its mean- 
 ing is, not that we should conform ourselves to the 
 arbitrary expectations of others, but that we should 
 
192 Plantation Life 
 
 render unto them precisely the same measure which, 
 if we were in their circumstance, it would be reason- 
 able and just in us to demand at their hands. It 
 condemns slavery, therefore, only upon the supposi- 
 tion that slavery is a sinful relation ; that is, he who 
 extracts the prohibition of slavery from the Golden 
 Rule begs the very point in dispute. 
 
 "We cannot pursue the argument in detail, but 
 we have said enough, we think, to vindicate the posi- 
 tion of the Southern Church." 
 
 I add to the argument one single sentence more 
 from this splendid vindication of the position of our 
 Southern Presbyterian Church : " We feel that the 
 souls of our slaves are a solemn trust, and we shall 
 strive to present them faultless and complete before 
 the presence of God." 
 
 Here I must, per for ce^ stop in my quotations from 
 this able paper, in which one knows not which 
 most to admire, the logic or the rhetoric, the reason- 
 ing or the piety. Let it now be recalled that the 
 entire Assembly affixed their signatures pubhcly to 
 this document; as well, the venerable Dr. A. W. 
 Leland, of northern birth; "a southerner," as he 
 well expressed it once in a time of great excitement 
 
Before Emancipation. 193^ 
 
 in South Carolina, " a southerner not of necessity as 
 one born in that section, but by choice," and Eev. 
 Dr. James H. Thornwell, a southron by descent, 
 birth, and in every fibre of his being. Some would 
 say. Why write of a dead issue? To this we make 
 answer: Truth never dies, for it has the years of 
 God, the immortahty of its Author. What was 
 scriptural and therefore right before the war, is both 
 still. God has in his providence abolished African 
 slavery, because he saw fit, and because his Word 
 always taught, as the southerner believed, that, other 
 things being equal, " to be free is better." But Di- 
 vine Providence is not in conflict with the Divine 
 Word. Tried by the Bible, slaveiy was not sin, nor 
 southern slaveholders sinners because of it. And 
 there is something inspiring in that conviction of 
 right which enabled these hundi'ed or more ministers 
 and elders to stand immovable in the tossing bil- 
 lows of that dreadful conflict which was occasioned 
 by, and resulted (with the regrets of none) in the 
 abohtion of American slavery in America. 
 
CHAPTEE XXII. 
 
 THE FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY AND TUB 
 NEGRO-THE ADDRESS OF DR. JONES ON 
 THE RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION OF NEGROES, 
 
 THE last appearance, I believe, of the "Apostle 
 to the Blacks," as, in a former letter, Eev. Dr. 
 Charles Colcock Jones was styled, in any ecclesiasti- 
 cal body, was before that convened in Augusta, Ga., 
 in 1861. " Perhaps I shaU not be with you, brethren, 
 next year," he had said, in excusing himself from 
 the chairmanship of an important committee, ap- 
 pointed to report to the next Assembly. He never 
 went to another, until he was summoned by the 
 angel of death to "the general assembly of the 
 firstborn, which are written in Heaven." 
 
 Appointed chairman of the Committee of Domes- 
 tic Missions, he used this language on the subject 
 ever near to his heart : " That the great field of mis- 
 sionary operations among the colored population falls 
 17 194 
 
Plantation Life. 195 
 
 more particularly under the care of the Committee 
 of Domestic Missions ; and that committee be urged 
 to give it serious and earnest attention, and the 
 Presbyteries to co-operate -with it in securing pas- 
 tors and missionaries for the field." 
 
 This last suggestion was made the special order 
 for discussion on the evening of December 10th ; and 
 Dr. Jones invited to address the Assembly upon the 
 subject. "We state, in passing, that in the debate 
 which followed, it was resolved that a pastoral letter 
 be prepared upon the subject, to be reported for ac- 
 tion to the next General Assembly, the chairmanship 
 of which Dr. Jones, on the plea of ill-health, as be- 
 fore stated, decHned. His Address the Assembly 
 directed to be pubhshed. I have in my bound vol- 
 ume of pamphlets a copy of it. It has not lost its 
 power to stir my soul, although committed for a 
 quarter century to the cold custody of the printed 
 page ; its effect at the time of its delivery was mar- 
 velous. Let an eye-witness describe the occasion and 
 the address. 
 
 The large audience-room of the beautiful church 
 was filled from pulpit to door by commissioners 
 and people. The speaker, as he walked up the aisle. 
 
196 Plantation Life 
 
 l)y the feebleness of his gait, and somewhat bowed 
 fonn, created the impression of age which was not 
 confirmed by his short-cropped light hair, with 
 scarcely a silver thread, and his noble, intellectual, 
 spiritual and benevolent face, without a seam or 
 wrinkle. Unable, from weakness, produced by a 
 wasting palsy, to stand, he took the position in our 
 Lord's day assigned the teacher. Sitting, but with 
 free use of arms and hands, in impressive gesture, 
 he held the immense audience spell-bound, in al- 
 most absolute stillness, for an hour and a half, while 
 he plead for the souls of the poor slaves, to whose 
 salvation his noble life, now rapidly, as he and w^e 
 well knew, drawing to its close, had been conse- 
 crated. Back of the speaker there was what the 
 old rhetoricians laid down as an essential of true 
 oratory — character. The audience saw before them 
 one, of whom a fellow-commissioner, Rev. Dr. B. M. 
 Palmer, has recently used this language, in the obit- 
 uary of his only daughter : " Her distinguished fa- 
 ther, it need not be told, by his intellectual strength 
 and culture, and still more by the majesty of his 
 character, acquired the highest distinction which 
 could be conferred in the church which he served. 
 
Before Emancipation. 197 
 
 He was twice called to the chair of history and polity 
 in the Theological Seminary at Columbia, S. C, and 
 then to discharge the important function of Secre- 
 tary of Home Missions in the Presbyterian Church, 
 long before the separation caused by the late civil 
 war. Yet all these public honors were voluntarily 
 surrendered by this man of God, that, without fee 
 or reward, he might become a missionary to the 
 slaves in his native coimty. By this act of self-ab- 
 negation, he endeared himself to the people of God 
 throughout the land, and won a distinction to him- 
 self beyond that of princes or titles to confer." 
 
 Beginning with the thought that the meeting in 
 the interests of Domestic Missions was but a con- 
 tinuation of that held the previous evening in behalf 
 of Foreign Iklissions, since the field was one and the 
 work the same, he rapidly sketches the territory oc- 
 cupied by the Confederate States, its physical fea- 
 tures, productions and population. He then skil- 
 fully introduces the subject of the negro; his pe- 
 culiar relation to the whites, relative numbers of the 
 two races, and sketches the history of his introduc- 
 tion into the United States. Noting the fact with 
 approval that the Confederate Congress had passed 
 
198 Plantation Life 
 
 an act prohibiting the slave-trade, and that for a long 
 period the increase of the negro had not been hj 
 importation, but by birth, he remarks that " the na- 
 tural increase of the negroes under a genial climate 
 and mild treatment has kept pace with that of the 
 whites, but not exceeded it, and that increase will con- 
 tinue, although for good reasons (white emigration?) 
 the white population will make the disparity of num- 
 bers between the two classes greater and greater at 
 every census." He then, in feeling and eloquent 
 language, emphasizes the value of the slave as a fel- 
 low immortal, dwells upon his close relation to tha 
 master, his importance to society as a producer of 
 values, and draws from all these considerations pow- 
 erful arguments for his evangehzation. He then, 
 with all his moving oratory, urges to their help a 
 church which had, as he affirmed, only "pairtially 
 fulfilled " her duty to this peoj)le, in the providence 
 of God, now thrown exclusively upon the southern 
 people for the gosjDel, and closes with practical sug- 
 gestions as to the best methods of performing this 
 her acknowledged duty. 
 
 No analysis can do justice to the address, and we 
 shall append to our imperfect summary, as samples 
 of its moving oratory, a few extracts. 
 
Befoee Emancipation. 199 
 
 Paying the race a deserved compliment for its 
 good behavior throughout its history in this country, 
 he asks : 
 
 " Whence came this people ? Originally from the 
 kraals and jungles, the cities and villages, of the tor- 
 rid regions of Africa, wonderfully adapted by con- 
 stitution and complexion to live and thrive in similar 
 latitudes in all the world. They are inhabiters of 
 one common earth with us ; they are one of the va- 
 rieties of our race — a variety produced by the power 
 and in the inscrutable wisdom of God; but when, 
 and how, and where, lies back of all the traditions 
 and records of men. These sons of Ham are black 
 in the first hieroglyphics ; they are black in the first 
 pages of histor}", and continue black. They share 
 our physical nature, and are bone of our bone and 
 flesh of our flesh; they share our intellectual and 
 spiritual nature ; each body of them covers an im- 
 mortal soul God our Father loves, for whom Christ 
 our Saviour died, and unto whom everlasting happi- 
 ness or misery shall be meted in the final day. They 
 are not the cattle upon a thousand hills, nor the 
 fowls upon the mountains, brute beasts, goods and 
 chattels, to be taken, worn out and destroyed in our 
 
200 Plantation Life 
 
 use ; but they are men, created in the image of God, 
 to be acknowledged and cared for spiritually by us, 
 as "we acknowledge and care for the other varieties of 
 the race, our own Caucasian or the Indian, or the 
 Mongol. Shall we reach the Bread of Life OTsr their 
 heads to far-distant nations, and leave them to die 
 eternal deaths before our eyes ? 
 
 " What is their social connection ivith us f They 
 are not foreigners, but our nearest neighbors ; they 
 are not hired servants, but servants belonging to us 
 in law and gospel; born in our house and bought 
 with our money; not people whom we seldom see 
 and whom we seldom hear, but people who are never 
 out of the sight of our eyes and hearing of our ears. 
 They are our constant and inseparable associates ; 
 whither we go they go; ^^'here we dwell they dwell; 
 where we die and are buried, there they die and are 
 buried; and, more than all, our God is their God. 
 AVhat parts men most closely connected in this life 
 from each other, that can only part us from them, 
 namely, crime, debt, or death. Indeed, they are with 
 us from the cradle to the grave. Many of us are 
 nursed at their generous breasts, and all carried in 
 their arms. They help to make us walk, they help 
 
Before Emai^cipation. 201 
 
 to make us talk, they help to teach us to distinguish 
 the first things we see aud the first things we hear. 
 They mingle in all our infantile and boyish sports. 
 They are in our chambers aiid in our parlors, and 
 serve us at eveiy call. "We say to this man ' Go,' and 
 he goeth; and to another 'Come,' and he cometh; 
 and to another 'Do this,' and he doeth it; they are 
 with us in the house and in the field ; they are with 
 us when we travel on the land and on the sea ; and 
 when we are called to face dangers, or pestilence, or 
 war, still are they with us ; they patiently nurse us 
 and ours in long nights and days of illness ; our for- 
 tunes are their fortunes; and our joys their joys; 
 and our sorrows are their sorrows ; and among the 
 last forms that our faihng eyes do see, and among 
 the last sounds our ears do hear, are their forms and 
 their weepings, mingled with those of our dearest 
 ones, as they bend over us in our last struggles, dy- 
 ing, passing away into the valley of the shadows of 
 death ! My brethren, are these people nothing to 
 us? Have we no gratitude, no friendship, no kind 
 feelings for all that they have done for us and for 
 ours? Have we no heart to feel, no hand to help, 
 no smiles to give, no tears to shed on their behalf? 
 
202 Plantation Life 
 
 No wish in our inmost soul that they may know what 
 we prize above all price, our precious Saviour, and 
 go with us to glory, too? 
 
 " What is their value as an integral part of our 
 population^ to ourselves, to our country, and to the 
 world itself? To ourselves, they are the source, in 
 large measure, of our living, and comprise our 
 wealth, in Scripture, our * money.' Our boatmen 
 are they on the waters : our mechanics and artisans 
 to build our houses, to work in many trades; our 
 agriculturists to subdue our forests, to sow and 
 cultivate and reap our lands ; without whom no team 
 is started, no plow is run, no spade, nor hoe, nor 
 axe, is driven ; they prepare our food, and wait upon 
 our tables and our persons, and keep the house, and 
 watch for the master's coming. They labor for us 
 in summer's sun and in winter's cold; to the fruit of 
 their labor we owe our education, our food and cloth- 
 ing, and our dwellings, and a thousand comforts of 
 life that crowd our happy homes; and through the 
 fruit of their labors we are enabled to support the 
 gospel and enjoy the priceless means of grace. 
 Brethren, what could we do without this people? 
 How hve and support our families? And have they 
 
Befoke Emancipation. 203 
 
 no claims upon us? Are they nothing more than 
 creatui'es of profit and pleasure? Are the advan- 
 tages and blessings of that close connection between 
 us in the household to be all on one side ? Has our 
 Master in heaven so ordained it? I will reverse the 
 question of the apostle to the Corinthians and put it 
 in the mouth of youi' servants, and make them ask 
 it of you, their masters : * If we have sown unto you 
 carnal things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your 
 spiritual things?'" 
 
 This is what he beautifully says to pastors, in 
 urging them not to forget this part of their charge : 
 
 " Give notice to the master on what evening you 
 will be with him, and that you will preach or lecture 
 for his family and household. Eight gladly will he 
 welcome you; the family and plantation will ha all 
 astir — ' our minister is coming to preach to us this 
 evening.' Tea is over, the time for the meeting is 
 at hand. The little children beg to sit up to meet- 
 ing ; one servant takes the books and lights, another 
 the chairs and stand. Everj^thiQg is nicely arranged, 
 and you are directly in presence of bright faces, and 
 your psalm is sung with spirit and power, your prayer 
 and your sermon fall on many attentive ears, and the 
 
204 Plantation Life 
 
 hearty thanks of your humble parishioners fill you 
 ■with gladness. At the close, you will speak an en- 
 couraging word to the members of the church, and 
 shake hands with the aged, and perhaps step in to 
 see some sick and afflicted one. You will also en- 
 quire how well the children and youth attend the 
 plantation Sunday-school; and if you do not impart 
 joy to the household, and go away a happier Chris- 
 tian and a more blest minister, we shall bid farewell 
 to years of experience and observation in this field 
 of labor." 
 
 Insisting on a high order of qualification in the mis- 
 sionary to the blacks, and thorough preparation for 
 his pulpit labors, he says this of his pastoral duties : 
 
 ^'And as a good shepherd he will follow them 
 into the highways and hedges, into their own 
 plantations and into their own sick chambers, 
 and speak unto and pray with them. He will per- 
 form their marriage ceremonies and attend their fu- 
 nerals, and follow them to their graves, and go in 
 and out before them, with the Bible in his hands, in 
 the fear of the Lord. He will become a star in the 
 right hand of the Saviour before them, and they will 
 rejoice in his light, and learn to sing his h^Tuns, and 
 
Before Emancipation. 205 
 
 quote his precepts, and authority, and ai'gue by his 
 knowledge, and take him to be their friend, and seek 
 his instruction in times of difficulty, and his comfort 
 in their times of sorrow, and bring their families to 
 him for instruction and for his blessing ; and when 
 they die, they will wish him to preach their funeral 
 sermon. He will be happy with the people, and they 
 win be happy with him ; as much so as weak and 
 sinful and partially sanctified ministers and peoplo 
 can be in this world. "Whenever he meets them he 
 speaks kind words, and receives kind words in re- 
 turn. He is not ashamed of them, and they are 
 glad in him ; and when he rides along the road, and 
 they are at work in the field, he flings over the fence 
 amongst them, a cheerful 'Good morning! good 
 morning to you all T In a moment, every eye is up, 
 and they catch his voice and person, and retium his 
 salutation with a hearty good will, with rapid inqui- 
 ries after his welfare, and their loud and happy con- 
 versation dies on his ear as he leaves them behind !'* 
 A more tender and poetic and yet eloquent para- 
 graph it would be hard to find in any address, than 
 
 that which I now close an account of an address, 
 
 J 
 ■which stirred my soul to its depths, as it did others," 
 
206 pLA]!rrATioN Life 
 
 and sent me (a lover of tlie race from childhood, and 
 since manhood a worker among them) to my home 
 and charge, determined (the best proof of the speak- 
 er's power) to work for their salvation as I had never 
 done before. 
 
 Imagine the effect of hearing this man of God, 
 manifestly drawing near to the grave, unable even to 
 stand, give this as his experience and parting word 
 to his ministerial brethren, whose face they were to 
 see in our highest court no more ! 
 
 "Yes, my brethren, there is a blessing in the work ! 
 How often, returning home after preaching on the 
 Sabbath day, through crowds of worshippers, some- 
 times singing as they went down to their homes 
 again, or, returning from plantation meetings, held in 
 humble abodes, late in the starlight night, or in the 
 soft moonhght silvering over the forest on the road- 
 side, wet with hea^y dews, with scarcely a sound to 
 break the silence, alone, but not lonely; how often 
 has there flowed up in the soul a deep, peaceful joy.t 
 that God enabled me to preach the gospel to the 
 DOor? 
 
 " And now that this eai'thly tabernacle trembles to 
 its fall, and these failing limbs can no more bear me 
 
Before Emancipation 207 
 
 about, nor this tongue, as it was wont, preach the glad 
 tidings of salvation, I look back, and varied recollec- 
 tions crowd my mind, and my eyes grow dim with 
 tears, I pray for gratitude for innumerable mercies 
 past, for forgiveness for the chief of sinners, and for 
 the most unfaithful of ministers, for meek submis- 
 sion for the present, and for an assured hope in a 
 precious Saviour for the future. Oh, my brethren ! 
 work while the day lasts, ' for the night cometh when 
 no man can work;' for the shadows of that night, 
 even while the day lasts, may fall upon you and stop 
 you in your way, ere its deep darkness shut you 
 around in the cold grave, no more to be removed 
 until the Son of Man shall come in his glory, to the 
 judgment of the great day." 
 
CHAPTEE XXIII. 
 
 CONDUCT OF THE NEORO DURING THE WAR. 
 
 THE celebrated Emancipation Proclamation was 
 clearly a war measure, whose sole purpose waa 
 the crippling of the enemy. It went into operation 
 imperfectly during the war within the Federal lines, 
 and became effectual only at its close. Indeed, it is 
 said that some Indian slaveholders in the Ever- 
 glades of Florida have only recently found out that 
 their negroes are free The conduct, therefore, of 
 the negro before emancipation includes his conduct 
 during the war. 
 
 The facts which I am about to relate are noto- 
 rious, and have passed into history, but it will be 
 useful to recall them. What I shall relate is the 
 result largely of my own observation, and of what I 
 have learned from the lips of actors in the scenes 
 described. 
 
 It will be convenient to divide the subject ; and I 
 208 
 
Plantation Life. 209 
 
 will first speak of the conduct of the negro in vast 
 regions of the South never invaded by a Federal 
 army. 
 
 Here let me premise that there was no discern- 
 ible difference in the conduct of the negi'oes as the 
 war progressed and the area of the doomed Con- 
 federacy constantly narrowed, and the news perco- 
 1 ted the country that the object of the approach- 
 ing armies was their liberation. Whether it waa 
 due to the habits of industry and subordination 
 engendered by two centuries of American slavery, 
 or to the intrinsic inoffensiveness of the race, it is 
 certain that their conduct under most tiying cir- 
 cumstances was above all praise, and constitutes a 
 debt which Southerners should be neither reluctant 
 to acknowledge nor slow to pay. 
 
 As a rule, there was no insubordination among 
 them, although the master'^ eye and hand were 
 absent, much less threat of, or execution of vio- 
 lence. "With the entire arms-bearing male popula- 
 tion — "conscription robbing (as it was said) the 
 cradle and the grave" — withdrawn, they, under 
 their negro drivers and occasional overseers, and 
 mainly under the direction of mistresses, advised 
 
210 Plantation Life 
 
 by letter from time to time by masters at the front, 
 tilled the fields, harvested and sold the crops, and 
 protected the defenceless famihes of men fighting 
 against their freedom! Absolutely, women and 
 children felt and were safer then than they are 
 now in some parts of the South. 
 
 Let me now refer to their conduct within the 
 Federal lines. Some bad slaves, and a few, mostly 
 young and foohsh negroes, fascinated by the large 
 promises of freedom which, in their ignorance, they 
 mistook for exemption from work and govern- 
 mental support, followed in the wake of the Hberat- 
 ing armies, until their privations forced them home 
 again. The sufferings of these poor creatures made 
 the name given to them by the Federals, " contra- 
 bands," a synonymn of wretchedness. 
 
 The great mass of them within the changing 
 army lines remained quietly in their homes, and 
 took care, with a beautiful fidelity, of the families 
 of their ovmers. In not a few instances, their treat- 
 ment by the Federals was not calculated to awaken 
 any ardent admiration of their dehverers. In Lib- 
 erty county, for example, they robbed servant and 
 master with perfect impartiality, not only carrying 
 14 
 
Befoee Emancipation. 211 
 
 off tlie clothing of the absent master and present 
 servant, but exchanging their infested undercloth- 
 ing for that of the negro women ! 
 
 The conduct of the negro in Liberty county, Ga., 
 during what is still called " Sherman's Raid," is 
 doubtless a fair specimen of their conduct elsewhere 
 under similar circumstances. As such I give now 
 the testimony of two eye witnesses ; and first quote 
 from a brief journal of the experience of the only 
 daughter, now deceased, of Eev. Charles Colcock 
 Jones, D. D., on her father's plantation home, " Mon- 
 tevideo," Liberty county, Ga. 
 
 When Sherman, in his unopposed march from 
 Atlanta to the sea, struck the fortifications around 
 Savannah, which occasioned only a short halt, his 
 great army flattened out all over the adjoining 
 country and hved upon its rich resources. Our 
 guard said they had a perfect picnic in our county. 
 For a month or more, three lone females and five 
 little children were exposed to the constant visits 
 of foraging parties of his troops. I quote from the 
 journal written upon one of my old blank books, in 
 part occupied with memoranda of texts to be fash- 
 ioned into sermons : 
 
212 Plantation Life 
 
 Tuesday, Dec. 1, 1861, — Mother rode to Arcadia 
 this morrdng, thinking the Yankees were no nearer 
 than Way's Station (in an adjoining county), and 
 lingered about the place until late in the afternoon, 
 when she started to return to " Montevideo^" and 
 was quietly knitting in the carriage fearing no evil: 
 (lack was driving. Just opposite the Girardeau 
 place, a Yankee sprang from the woods and brought 
 his carbine to bear upon Jack, ordering him to 
 halt, then lowered it so that he could bring it to 
 bear either upon the carriage or Jack, and de- 
 manded of mother what she had in the carriage. 
 She rejDlied: "Nothing but my family effects." 
 "What have you in that box behind your carriage? " 
 "My servant's clothing " "Where are you going? " 
 " To my home." ''Where is your home? " "Nearer 
 the coast." "How far is the coast?" "About ten 
 miles. I am a defenceless woman, a widow; have 
 you done with me, sir. Drive on. Jack." Bringing 
 his gim to bear on Jack, he called out: "Halt!" 
 He then asked, "Have you seen any rebels? " "We 
 have a Post at No. 3." He then said: "I would not 
 like to disturb a lad}^ and if you take my advice 
 you will turn immediately back, for the men are 
 
Befoee Emancipation. 213 
 
 just ahead, and thej will take jour horses and search 
 your carriage." Mother replied: "I thank you for 
 that," and ordered Jack to turn. Jack saw a num- 
 ber of men ahead, and mother would doubtless have 
 been in their midst had she proceeded. (Pursuing, 
 under great difficulties, a circuitous route, for the 
 Confederates had taken up the bridges, and with a 
 faithful negro acting as her Toluntarj scout, she 
 reached her home and anxious daughter at nine 
 o'clock at night. The journal continues :) 
 
 I was truly rejoiced to hear the sound of the car- 
 riage ^\^heeJs, for I had been several hours in the 
 greatest suspense, not knowing how mother would 
 hear of the presence of the enemy. (Learning, mean- 
 while, of the presence of Federal soldiers in the neigh- 
 borhood, she continues:) Feaiing a raiding party 
 might come up immediately, I had some trunks of 
 clothing and other things carried into the woods, and 
 the carts and horses taken away, and prepared to 
 spend the night alone, as I had no idea mother could 
 
 reach home. After ten o'clock Mr. TJ came in to 
 
 see us, having come from No. 3, where a portion of 
 
 Hood's command was stationed. Mr. M staid 
 
 with us untn two o'clock, and feai'ing to remain 
 
214 Plantation Life 
 
 longer left, to join tlie soldiers at 4 J, Johnson's 
 
 Station. He had exchanged his horse for C 's 
 
 mule, as he was going on picket duty and would 
 need a swifter animal. This distressed us very 
 much, and I told him I feared he would be cap- 
 tured. It was hard to part under this apprehen- 
 sion, and he lingered with us as long as possible, 
 and prayed with us just before leaving. 
 
 Wednesday, Dec. 14. — Mother and I rose early, 
 thankful no enemy had come near us during the 
 night. We passed the day in great anxiety. Late 
 in the afternoon, Charles (the servant man) came 
 into the parlor, just from Walthourville, and burst 
 into tears. I asked what was the matter. " Oh ! " 
 he said, " very bad news. Massa is captured by 
 the Yankees, and says I must tell you to keep a 
 good heart." This was a dreadful blow to us and 
 
 to the poor Httle children ; M especially realized 
 
 it and cried all evening !..... 
 
 TJiursday, Dec. 15. — About ten o'clock mother 
 walked out upon the lawn, leaving me in the dining- 
 room. In a few moments Elsey came running in to 
 say the Yankees are coming, I went to the front 
 door and saw three dismounting at the stable, where 
 
Before Emancipation. 215 
 
 they found mother. I debated whether to go to her 
 or remain in the house; the question was soon set- 
 tled, for in a moment a stalwart Kentucky Irishman 
 stood before me, having come through the pantry 
 door. I scarcely knew what to do. His salutation 
 was: "Have you any whiskey in the house V I 
 rephed: "None that I know of." "You ought to 
 know," he said in a very rough voice. I rephed : 
 " This is not my house, so I don't know what is in 
 it." Said he: "I mean to search this house for 
 arms; but I will not hurt you." He then com- 
 menced shaking and pushing the sHding doors and 
 calling for the key. Said I: "If you will turn the 
 handle and slide the door you will find it open." 
 The following interrogation took place: "What's 
 in that box? " " Books." "What's in that room? " 
 "You can search for yourself." "What's in that 
 press?" "I do not know, because this is mother's 
 house, and I have recently come here." "A\Tiat's 
 in that box?" "Books and pictures." "Whafs 
 that, and where is the key?" "?.Iy sewing-ma- 
 chine; I'U get the key." He then opened the 
 side door, and discovered the door leading into the 
 old parlor." "I want to get into that room" " If 
 
216 Plantation Lifb 
 
 you will come around I will get the key for you." 
 We passed through the parlor; he ran up the stairs 
 and commenced searching my bed-room. " "Where 
 have you hid your arms'?" "There are none in the 
 house, you can search for yourself." He ordered 
 me to get the keys to all my trunks and drawers. 
 I did so, and he put his hand into everything, even 
 a Httle trunk containing needle-work, boxes of hair, 
 and other small things of this description. All this 
 was under color of searching for arms and ammuni- 
 tion ! He called loudly for all the keys ; I told him 
 my mother would soon be in the house and she 
 would get the keys for him. While searching my 
 drawers he tui'ned to me and asked. "Where is 
 your watch ? " I told him : " My husband has worn 
 it, and he was captured the day before at Walthour- 
 ville." Shaking his fist at me he said: "Don't you 
 lie to me; you have got a watch." I felt he could 
 have struck me to the floor, but looking steadily at 
 him, I repHed: "I have a watch and chain, and my 
 husband has them with him." "Well, were they 
 taken when he was captured? " " I do not know, 
 for I was not present." Just at that time I heard 
 another commg up the stairsteps, and saw a young 
 
Before Emancipation. 217 
 
 Tennessean going into mottier's room, "where lie 
 commenced a search. Mother came in soon after 
 and got her keys, and there we were following two 
 men around the house, handing them the keys and 
 seeing almost everything opened. The Tennessean 
 found a box, and hearing something ratthng in it, 
 he thought there must be coin within it, and would 
 have broken it oi)en, but Dick prevented him. Mo- 
 ther got the key, and his longing eyes beheld a 
 bunch of keys. In looking through the drawers to 
 mother's surprise, Dick pulled out a sword which 
 belonged to her brother, and had been in her pos- 
 session for thirty years, and she had forgotten it 
 was there. Finding it to be so rusty that they 
 could scarcely draw it from the scabbard, they con- 
 cluded it would not kill many men in the war, and 
 did not take it away. 
 
 He turned to mother and said : " Old lady, haven't 
 you got some whiskey f Mother said: "I don't 
 know that I have." "Well," said he, "I don't know 
 who ought to know if you don't." (The ladies were 
 afraid of the results of their getting Hquor.) Mo- 
 ther asked him "if he would Hke to see his mother 
 and wife treated in this way, her house searched and 
 
218 Plantation Lite 
 
 invaded ?" " Oli I " said he, " none of us have wives.*' 
 "Whilst mother \Yalked from the stable with one from 
 Kentucky, he had a great deal to say about the 
 South bringing' on the war. Mother asked him, "if 
 he would like to see his mother and sisters treated 
 as they were treating us." " No !" said he, "T would 
 not, and I never do enter houses, and shall not enter 
 yours;" and he remained without, while the other 
 two men searched. They took none of the horses 
 or mules ; all being too old. 
 
 A little before dinner we were again alarmed by 
 the presence of five Yankees, four of them dressed 
 as marines. One came into the house; a very mild 
 sort of a man. We told him the house had ah-eady 
 been searched. He asked "if the soldiers had torn 
 up anything !" One of the marines came into the 
 pantry and asked if they could get something to 
 eat. Mother told them they were welcome to what 
 she had prepared for her own dinner, and if they 
 chose they could eat it where it was. So they went 
 into the kitchen, and cursing the servants, ordered 
 milk, potatoes, and other things. They called for 
 knives, etc. Having no forks out but plated ones, 
 mother sent them, but they ordered IVIilton to take 
 
Befoee Emancipation. 219 
 
 them back, and tell his mistress to put them away in 
 a safe place, as a parcel of d — d Yankees -would soon 
 be along, and they would take every one from her. 
 We hoped they would not intrude upon the dwell- 
 ing, but as soon as they finished, the four marines 
 came in, and one commenced a thorough search, 
 calling for all the keys. He found difficulty in 
 fitting the keys, and I told him that I would show 
 ihem to him, if he would give me the bunch. 
 He said he would give them to me when he 
 was re«dy to leave the house. He went into the 
 attic and instituted a thorough search. Taking a 
 canister, containing some private papers belonging 
 to my dear father, he tried to open it. Mother 
 could not find the key immediately, and told him 
 he had better break it; but she could assure him 
 it contained nothing but papers. "D — n it," he 
 said, "if you don't get the key, I will break it; I 
 don't care.'* In looking through the trunks, he 
 found a silver goblet, but did not take it. One of 
 the marines came in with a Secession rosette, which 
 mother had given Jack to burn. We were quite 
 amused to see him come ill with it j)inned upon his 
 coat. He had taken it from Jack. This one was 
 
220 Plantation Life. 
 
 quite inclined to argue about the origin of the 
 struggle. After spending a long time in the search, 
 they went off, taking one mule ; they left the car- 
 riage horses, as mother told them they were seven- 
 teen 3^ears old. In a short time we saw the mule at 
 the gate ; they had turned it back. After they left, 
 I found that my writing-desk had been most thor- 
 oughly searched, and everything scattered, and all 
 little articles, as jewelry, pencils, etc., abstracted. 
 A gold pen was taken from my work-box. Mother 
 felt so anxious about Kate King (a neighbor and 
 friend) that she sent Charles and Niger to urge her 
 to come to us ; but thev did. not reach South Hamp- 
 ton, as they met a Yankee picket which turned 
 them back, and took Charles with them to assist in 
 carrying horses to Midway, promising to let him re- 
 turn. 
 
 Friday, Dec. 16. — Much to our relief, Prophet 
 came over this morning with a note from Kate, to 
 know if we thought she could come to us. Mother 
 wrote her to come immediately, which she did in 
 great fear and trembling?, not knowing but that she 
 would meet the enemy on the road. AYe all felt 
 tinily gi'ateful she had been preserved by the way. 
 
Before Em-^jsCIpation. 221 
 
 About four in toe afternoon we heard the clash 
 of arms and noise of horsemen, and by the time 
 mother and I could get down stairs we saw forty or 
 fifty men in the pantry, ilying hither and thither, 
 ripping open the safe and crockeiy cupboards. 
 Mother had some roasted ducks and chickens in 
 the safe. These the men seized, tearing them to 
 pieces like rav'"-^ous beasts. They were clamoring 
 for Avhiskey and for the keys. One came to mother 
 to know where her meal and flour were. She got 
 the pantr}' key, and they took out all that was there, 
 and then threw the sacks across their horses. 
 Mother remonstrated, but their only reply was, 
 "AYe'll take it." They flew around the house, tear- 
 ing open boxes. One of them broke open mother's 
 work-box with an andiron. A party of them rifled 
 the pantry, taking away knives, spoons, forks, tin 
 plates, cups, cofl'ee-pot, and everything they wished. 
 They broke open the old liquor case and carried off 
 two of the gallon bottles, and they drank up all the 
 blackbeiTy wine and vinegar which mother had in 
 the case. It was impossible to utter a word, for 
 we were completely paralyzed by the fury of the 
 mob. A number of them went into the attic, into 
 
222 Plantation Life. 
 
 a little store-room mother had there, and carried 
 off twelve bushels of meal -which mother had put 
 there. Mother told them they were taking all that 
 she had for herself, daughter, friend, and five little 
 ones, but scarcely any regarded her voice, and those 
 that did laughed and said they would leave a sack, 
 but they only left some rice, which they did not 
 want, and poui*ed a little meal upon the floor. They 
 called for men's shirts and men's clothes. We asked 
 for their officer, hoping to make some appeal to him, 
 but they said "they were all officers." We finally 
 found one man who seemed to have a little show of 
 authority, which was indicated by a whip which he 
 carried. Mother made an ai:>peal to him, and he 
 came up and ordered the men out. They brought 
 a wagon and took another from the place to carry 
 off their plunder. It is impossible to imagine the 
 perfect stampede through the house, all yeUing, 
 cursing, quarreling, and going from one room to 
 another in wild confusion. They were of Kilpat- 
 rick's Cavahy ; and we look back upon their appear- 
 ance in the house as some horrible nightmare ! (In 
 narrating this scene afterwards, the writer of the 
 diary said to me, " The atmosphere seemed blue wdtk 
 
Eetoiie Emancipation. 223 
 
 oaths.") Before leaving, they ordered all the oxen 
 to be gotten up early next morning. 
 
 Saturday, Dec. 17. — About four o'clock we were 
 roused by the sound of horses, and from that until 
 sunrise squads of six and ten were constantly amv- 
 ing. "We felt a dark time of trial was upon us, and 
 "we knew not what might befall us. Feeling our 
 weakness and peril, w^e all went to prayer, and con- 
 tinued in prayer for a long time, imploring personal 
 protection and that the enemy might not be per- 
 mitted to come nigh our dwelling. We sat in dark- 
 ness, waiting for the light of morning to reveal their 
 purposes. In the gray twihght we saw one man 
 pacing before the kitchen, and afterwards found 
 that he had voluntarily undertaken to guard the 
 house, as far as he could. In this we felt that our 
 prayer had been answered. As soon as it was Hght, 
 Kate looked out and discovered an officer near the 
 house, which was a gi'eat rehef of our feelings. 
 Mother went down and begged him that he would 
 not allow the soldiers to enter the house, as it had 
 already been three times searched. He said "it 
 was contrary to orders for men to be found in 
 houses, and the penalty was death; and, so far as 
 
224 Plantation Life 
 
 his autliority extended, no man should enter the 
 house." He said they had come on a foraging ex- 
 pedition and intended to take proyisions, etc. Upon 
 mother inviting him in to see some of the work of 
 the previous evening, he came in and sat awhile in 
 the parlor. The Yankees made the negroes bring 
 up the oxen and carts, and took all the chickens, 
 tiu'keys, etc., that they could find; they also took off 
 all the SA'rup from the smoke-house and some fresh 
 pork. Mother saw everything stripped from the 
 premises, without the power t)f uttering one word. 
 Finally they rolled out the carriage, and took that 
 to carry in it a load of chickens (! }. Everything was 
 taken that they possibly could. The soldier who 
 was our voluntary guard was from Ohio, and when 
 mother thanked him and told she wished she could 
 make him some return for his kindness, he said : "I 
 could not receive any, and only wish I were here to 
 guard you always." They took off Jack, Pulaski, 
 June, Martin, little Pulaski, and Ebenezer, ulso 
 George, but said they might all return if they 
 wished, as they onl}' wanted them to drive their 
 carts as far as their wagon train. One said the car- 
 riage should return, and afterwards said mother 
 
Before EiiAxciPATioN. 225 
 
 must send for it if she wanted it. He knew very 
 well that this was impossible, as all the harness had 
 been taken from the place. A little -later mother 
 walked to the smoke-house, and found an officer 
 taking her sugar, which had been put to dry; he 
 seemed a little ashamed at having been caught, but 
 did not retui'n the sugar. He was mounted upon 
 Audley King's pet horse, and said as he rode o£f: 
 "How the man who owns this horse will curse the 
 Yankee who took him when he goes home and finds 
 him gone ! " He had Mr. King's servant mounted 
 upon another of his horses, and no doubt knew he 
 was near (in hiding) when he made the remark. 
 Immediately we went to work, removing the salt 
 and the remainder of the sugar into the house, and 
 while we were doing so a Missourian came up and 
 advised us to get everything into the house as 
 quickly as possible, and he would protect us while 
 doing so. He said he had enlisted to fight for the 
 Constitution, but since then the war had been turned 
 into another thing, and he did not axDjDrove this Aboh- 
 tionism, for his wife's people all owned slaves. He 
 told us, what afterward proved false, that ten thou- 
 infantry would soon pass through Riceboro, on their 
 15 
 
226 Plantation Life 
 
 "way to Thomasville. Soon after this some twenty 
 rode up, and caught me having a barrel rolled 
 toward the house, but they were very gentlemanly, 
 and only a few of them dismounted. They said 
 "the war would soon be over, as they would have 
 Savannah in a few days." I told them " Savannah 
 was not the Confederacy." They replied: "We 
 admire your spunk." They inquired for all the 
 large plantations. AU the poultry that could be 
 found was taken off. Squads came all day until 
 dark. The ox-wagons were taken to Carlarotta to 
 be filled with corn. 
 
 Sabbath, Dec. 18. — "We passed this day with many 
 fears, but no Yankees came to the lot, although many 
 went to Carlarotta (another settlement on the same 
 plantation), and were engaged in carrying off the 
 corn, the key of the corn-house having been taken 
 from Cato (the driver) the day before. A day com- 
 paratively free from interruption was very grateful 
 to us, although the constant state of apj^rehension 
 in which we were, was very distressing. In the 
 afternoon, while engaged in reading and seeking 
 protection from our Heavenly Father, Capt. Winn's 
 Isaiah came, bringing a note from Mr. M to 
 
Before Emancipation. 227 
 
 me, and from Mr. John Stevens to mother, sending 
 my watch. This was the first intelligence from 
 
 ]Mr. M . How welcome to us all, although the 
 
 note brought no hope of his release, as the charge 
 against him was taking up arms against the United 
 States. Capt. AVinn had been captured, but re- 
 leased. We were all in such distress that mother 
 wrote Mr. Stevens, begging him to come to us. We 
 felt 80 utterly alone, that it would be a comfort to 
 have him with us. 
 
 Monday, Dec, 19. — Squads of Yankees came all 
 day, so that the servants scarcely had a moment to 
 do anything for us out of the house; the women 
 finding it entirely unsafe for them to be out at all. 
 The few stray chickens and some sheep were killed. 
 These men were so outrageous at the ne^ro houses, 
 that the negro men were obliged to stay at their 
 houses for the protection of their wives, and in 
 some instance rescued them from the hands of 
 these infamous creatures. 
 
 Tuesday, Dec. 20. — A squad of Yankees came 
 after breakfast, rode into the pasture, drove up 
 some oxen, and went into the woods and brought 
 out mother's horse wagon, to which they attached 
 
228 Plantation Life 
 
 the oxen. Needing a chain for the purpose, they 
 went to the well and took the chain from the 
 buckets. Mother sent out to . 
 
 Here the journal ends. I add, that when the 
 first troops searched the house, the ladies, offering 
 to help them in their examination for cannon and 
 muskets in their trunks (!), adroitly flung the linen 
 taken from those first examined over trunks contain- 
 ing all their silver; and leaving everything just as 
 the first invaders of the home had deranged it, sub- 
 sequent marauders were misled; and so woman's 
 wit got the better of Yankee shrewdness. Through- 
 out all this long and trying experience, in which 
 three unprotected females and five young children 
 were exposed to the rudeness of Sherman's soldiers, 
 the servants, one and all, old and young, were per- 
 fectly respectful and faithful; indeed, our families, 
 ruthlessly robbed of all provisions by United States 
 soldiers, would, for all they cared, have suffered 
 from hunger, had it not been that their slaves pro- 
 vided them with food. 
 
 The last entry in the journal was December 20th. 
 January 4th, the writer of the journal (her husband 
 a prisoner in Savannah, with good prospect of being 
 
Before Emancipation. 229 
 
 sent for the war to a Northern prison^, and with fifty 
 Yankee soldiers clamoring to enter the house, who 
 only were kept out by the pluck of a lone woman, a 
 friend, gave birth to a daughter. The invaders 
 would not be said nay, until this lady said: "You 
 compel me to be plain, and to say that a child is 
 being this moment bora in the house ; " when they 
 raised a general yell, stuck spurs to their horses, 
 and disappeared down the avenue ! 
 
 In response to my request to know how the ne- 
 groes behaved in Liberty county during the raid, 
 the wife of one of our best known Georgia pastors 
 then in charge of the old Midway church, Liberty 
 county, gives this as her experience: 
 
 " Tell Cousin R that the negro population 
 
 in Liberty county during the war were restrained 
 by their rehgious training and teaching; and we 
 owe dear Uncle Charlie (Rev. Dr. C. C. Jones) a 
 debt of gratitude. Defenceless women and chil- 
 dren, and not the first act of violence "or depreda- 
 tion ! On the contraiy, constant acts of kindness ! 
 Our people fed us during the raid, and served us 
 faithfully, until w^e left the county months after- 
 wards to come up here, and they were all poUte and 
 
230 Plantation Life 
 
 respectful. I told our people, while they were now 
 free to the end of the chapter, I was free, and no 
 longer obhged to take care of them, and they must 
 now take care of me and of themselves, and not to 
 follow the army, but to stay on their own planta- 
 tions and provide for themselves ; that they could see 
 the army could not take care of their own soldiers 
 without tearing down our corn-houses ; and as Sher- 
 man's army encamped on our place (Lambert planta- 
 tion), and killed the cattle, sheep, geese, levelled the 
 fences and burnt the cotton-house, and tore down 
 the corn-houses to get at the corn before their eyes, 
 they saw the necessity of caring for themselves. 
 S^Tphax came and told us of the destruction of the 
 things at Arcadia (furniture and a fine piano) ; and 
 then these reports from Lambert plantation re- 
 minded me of the adverse messengers Job received 
 in ancient times. There were so many false reports 
 of citizens being killed and wounded, and some true, 
 that the bewilderment of a war is a terrible thing. 
 The searching of the houses for fire-arms by the 
 soldiers was terrible. But a better appointed army 
 than the Yankee army the sun never saw, or one 
 more obedient to orders. At a signal the house 
 
Before Emancipation. 231 
 
 would be swarming with them, and at a signal they 
 
 would be out of it as quickly. Mr. B says Gen. 
 
 Sherman never was in Liberty county himself. The 
 man who came with twelve others was so convinced 
 by my words of Mr. B 's innocence, that he re- 
 leased him immediately, charging him to remain in 
 
 the house, but Mr. B , saying he was safe in the 
 
 discharge of his duty, visited his peojDle as usual, 
 going to Montevideo to see dear aunt Mary Jones 
 and all the family. The behavior of the whole col- 
 ored population was wonderful in the extreme. I 
 doubt if we white people had been placed in the 
 same trying position, we would have behaved as 
 well. The soldiers would tell them: 'Now if you 
 want anything out of that house, go in and take it,* 
 but they did not take the first thing, as far as I 
 know; indeed, they had all they needed, and they 
 had to watch their own clothes and things. Au- 
 gustus, our carriage driver, told me they had taken 
 
 his best coat and his watch ; and all of Mr. B 's 
 
 they could get hold of, they carried off. And they 
 seemed to need fresh garments sadly. Matilda, 
 servant, swept a pair of discarded pants from the 
 i)iazza, which she said she was afraid to touch 1 
 
232 Plantation Life. 
 
 .... I saw a Yankee soldier take Mr. B 's 
 
 watch, after he returned to us from the other side 
 of the Alatamaha. The Yankees never came into 
 our houses at night (they were mortally afraid of 
 bushwhackers), which was a blessing." 
 
 I believe I could not have presented more vivid 
 or correct illustrations of the noble conduct of the 
 negro during the war, than that furnished in the 
 above journal and letter of two eye-witnesses, the 
 wives of well-known living Presbyterian ministers. 
 
CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 GONGLUSIOK 
 
 I HAVE now, through the blessing of God, fin- 
 ished the self-appointed and not unpleasing task 
 assumed many months since. The reader and the 
 writer have traveled, let us hope not without mutual 
 pleasm-e and profit, over a wide territory. Begin- 
 ning with the author's reasons for writing, and with 
 a sketch of the topics as they lay in his mind, to 
 which he has in the main adhered, he has given 
 some account of his connection with slaveiy and 
 slaves, painted from memory the old plantation, 
 recalled the occupation and sports which made it a 
 paradise to children, described the houses, food, 
 clothing, physicking and work of the negro, and 
 his marriage and family relations. 
 
 He has next presented the photograph of a curious 
 chai'acter ; and, with the aid of his own memor}^ and 
 the contributions of two Southern authors, given 
 233 
 
234 Plantation Life 
 
 specimens of the only literature peculiar to the 
 negro slave. 
 
 With a loving and loyal hand he has sketched the 
 histoiy of a remarkable church, that of his fathers, 
 and drawn from memory "Sacrament Sunday" in 
 the same, in which master and slave commemor- 
 ated together the Saviour's dying love. Then he has 
 attempted to sketch in outline the Ufe of one who 
 more than any man deserves to be known as "the 
 Apostle to the negro slave." Then followed a rapid 
 outline of his labors among and for them, a recital 
 of anecdotes preserved by him, illustrative of negro 
 character and reUgious exj)erience. Then was given 
 rapid sketches of work done in the same field by 
 other ministers, individuals, chui'ches and commu- 
 nities, including the history of a remarkable enter- 
 prise in a Southern city, and the personal and ten- 
 der reminiscences of another beloved missionary to 
 the blacks. The series has been fittingly closed 
 with a sketch from memoiy of the first General 
 Assembly, and a report of its work for the salvation 
 of the slave, and the testimony of eye-^\T[tnesses to 
 the noble conduct of the negro during the war. 
 
 Those who, without prepossession or prejudice, 
 
Before Emancipation. 235 
 
 have read these letters, must be convinced, if thej 
 needed any proof, that African slaveiy in America 
 •was not what some in their ignorance, envy or mahce 
 have portrayed it. That, with its confessed evils 
 and occasional abuses, it had many redeeming quah- 
 ties. No one who credits the statements of the com- 
 petent and truthful eye-witnesses given, will for a 
 moment doubt that in innumerable instances the 
 bond which bound master and slave had almost the 
 kindness, tenderness and strength of the ties which 
 connect dear kindred. It must also be perfectly clear 
 that, to a large extent, Southern Christians appre- 
 ciated their responsibility, and endeavored to dis- 
 charge it toward the souls of a people, in the provi- 
 dence of God, with no agency of theirs, committed 
 to their care; that the slaves were not, as a general 
 rule, regarded as mere chattels, but as immortal 
 beings, for whose rehgious instruction they (the 
 masters) would be held accountable by theii' com- 
 mon Master in heaven. 
 
 No one that I have met since the war regrets 
 their emancipation ; no Christian would again freely 
 assume the responsibility, felt to be so heavy by not 
 a few in the olden time. We have no harsh or 
 
236 Plantation Lite 
 
 angry feelings against those who, without compen- 
 sation, annihilated the larger part of the former 
 wealth of the South, and reduced our people tem- 
 poraiily almost to beggary. Surely we entertain 
 no feelings of resentment toward those w^ho, with- 
 out being consulted, were suddenly and without 
 any preparation invested with the responsibihty 
 and (in their intellectual condition) dangerous privi- 
 lege of citizenship. Our own beloved church, the 
 Southern Presbyterian, has shown every disposition 
 to help them 'religiously since the war, as far as 
 they would accept our aid. We feel that their 
 great need as citizens and as immortal beings, is 
 a pious and educated ministry. In accordance with 
 this view, there has been established om' seminary, 
 the Tuskaloosa Colored Institute in Alabama. Open 
 to students of all denominations, it is our institute 
 by which we hoj^e to raise up, for their future sepa- 
 rate church, an efficient Presbyterian ministry. The 
 work already done by this seminar}' tells for itself^ 
 and it is highly creditable to the ability of its pro- 
 fessors. Its graduates are, in their humility, mod- 
 esty, elocution and abihty, an honor to their Alma 
 Mater. One of the graduates, with a white asso- 
 
Befoee Emancipation. 237 
 
 ciate, is now in Africa, a missionarv' of the South- 
 ern Presbyterian Church. 
 
 One important end of these letters will have been 
 accomplished if they shall have fostered the kindly 
 feeling already binding the two races together, if 
 they have awakened on oiu' part a deeper and more 
 helpful sympathy with them in their infant enter- 
 prise, the estabHshment of an African Presbyterian 
 church in the South, and if they shall have drawn 
 to the aid of our Tuskaloosa Institute the generous 
 pecuniary support of Christians North and South. 
 
 And now I close my letters as the Psalmist did 
 his psalms, and with his doxology: "Blessed be 
 the Lord God, the God of Israel, who only doeth 
 wonderful things, and blessed be his glorious name 
 forever, and let the whole earth be filled with his 
 glory. Amen and Amen. '' 
 
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