CHAPTER VIII.
THE NEGRO HUNTER.
Alighting from the carriage, I entered, with my host, the cabin of thenegro-hunter. So far as external appearance went, the shanty was aslight improvement on the "Mills House," described in a previouschapter; but internally, it was hard to say whether it resembled more apig-sty or a dog-kennel. The floor was of the bare earth, covered inpatches with loose plank of various descriptions, and littered over withbillets of "lightwood," unwashed cooking utensils, two or three cheapstools, a pine settee--made from the rough log and hewn smooth on theupper side--a full-grown bloodhound, two younger canines, and ninehalf-clad juveniles of the flax-head species. Over against thefire-place three low beds afforded sleeping accommodation to nearly adozen human beings (of assorted sizes, and dove-tailed together withheads and feet alternating), and in the opposite corner a lower couch,whose finer furnishings told plainly it was the peculiar property of the"wee ones" of the family--a mother's tenderness for her youngest thuscropping out even in the midst of filth and degradation--furnishedquarters for an unwashed, uncombed, unclothed, saffron-hued littlefellow about fifteen months old, and--the dog "Lady." She was of a darkhazel color--a cross between a pointer and a bloodhound--and one of themost beautiful creatures I ever saw. Her neck and breast were boundabout with a coarse cotton cloth, saturated with blood, and emitting astrong odor of bad whiskey; and her whole appearance showed thedesperate nature of the encounter with the overseer.
The nine young democrats who were lolling about the room in variousattitudes, rose as we entered, and with a familiar but ratherdeferential "How-dy'ge," to the Colonel, huddled around and stared at mewith open mouths and distended eyes, as if I were some strange being,dropped from another sphere. The two eldest were of the male gender, aswas shown by their clothes--cast-off suits of the inevitablereddish-gray, much too large, and out at the elbows and the knees--butthe sex of the others I was at a loss to determine, for they wore only asingle robe, reaching, like their mother's, from the neck to the knees.Not one of the occupants of the cabin boasted a pair of stockings, butthe father and mother did enjoy the luxury of shoes--coarse, stoutbrogans, untanned, and of the color of the legs which they encased.
"Well, Sandy, how is 'Lady?'" asked the Colonel, as he stepped to thebed of the wounded dog.
"Reckon she's a goner, Cunnel; the d---- Yankee orter swing fur it."
This intimation that the overseer was a countryman of mine, took me bysurprise, nothing I had observed in his speech or manners havingindicated it, but I consoled myself with the reflection that Connecticuthad reared him--as she makes wooden hams and nutmegs--expressly for theSouthern market.
"He _shall_ swing for it, by ----. But are you sure the slut will die?"
"Not shore, Cunnel, but she can't stand, and the blood _will_ run. Ireckon a hun'red and fifty ar done for thar, sartin."
"D---- the money--I'll make that right. Go to the house and get someointment from Madam--she can save her--go at once," said my host.
"I will, Cunnel," replied the dirt-eater, taking his broad-brim from awooden peg, and leisurely leaving the cabin. Making our way then overthe piles of rubbish and crowds of children that cumbered the apartment,the Colonel and I returned to the carriage.
"Dogs must be rare in this region," I remarked, as we resumed our seats.
"Yes, well-trained bloodhounds are scarce everywhere. That dog is wellworth a hundred and fifty dollars."
"The business of nigger-catching, then, is brisk, just now?"
"No, not more brisk than usual. We always have more or less runaways."
"Do most of them take to the swamps?"
"Yes, nine out of ten do, though now and then one gets off on a tradingvessel. It is almost impossible for a strange nigger to make his way byland from here to the free states."
"Then why do you Carolinians make such an outcry about the violation ofthe Fugitive Slave Law?"
"For the same reason that dogs quarrel over a naked bone. We should beunhappy if we couldn't growl at the Yankees," replied the Colonel,laughing.
"_We_, you say; you mean by that, the hundred and eighty thousand nabobswho own five-sixths of your slaves?"[I]
"Yes, I mean them, and the three millions of poor whites--the ignorant,half-starved, lazy vermin you have just seen. _They_ are the real basisof our Southern oligarchy, as you call it," continued my host, stilllaughing.
"I thought the negroes were the serfs in your feudal system?"
"Both the negroes and the poor whites are the serfs, but the white trashare its real support. Their votes give the small minority ofslave-owners all their power. You say we control the Union. We do, andwe do it by the votes of these people, who are as far below our niggersas the niggers are below decent white men. Who that reflects that thiscountry has been governed for fifty years by such scum, would give ad---- for republican institutions?"
"It does speak badly for _your_ institutions. A system that reducesnearly half of a white population to the level of slaves cannot stand inthis country. The late election shows that the power of your 'whitetrash' is broken."
"Well, it does, that's a fact. If the states should remain together, theWest would in future control the Union. We see that, and are thereforedetermined on dissolution. It is our only way to keep our niggers."
"The West will have to consent to that project. My opinion is, yourpresent policy will, if carried out, free every one of your slaves."
"I don't see how. Even if we are put down--which we cannot be--and areheld in the Union against our will, government cannot, by theconstitution, interfere with slavery in the states."
"I admit that, but it can confiscate the property of traitors. Everylarge slave-holder is to-day, at heart, a traitor. If this movement goeson, you will commit overt acts against the government, and inself-defence it will punish treason by taking from you the means offuture mischief."
"The Republicans and Abolitionists might do that if they had the power,but nearly one-half of the North is on our side, and will not fight us."
"Perhaps so; but if _I_ had this thing to manage, I would put you downwithout fighting."
"How would you do it--by preaching abolition where even the niggerswould mob you? There's not a slave in all South Carolina but would shootGarrison or Greeley on sight."
"That may be, but if so, it is because you keep them in ignorance. Builda free-school at every cross-road, and teach the poor whites, and whatwould become of slavery? If these people were on a par with the farmersof New England, would it last for an hour? Would they not see that itstands in the way of their advancement, and vote it out of existence asa nuisance?"
"Yes, perhaps they would; but the school-houses are not at thecross-roads, and, thank God, they will not be there in this generation."
"The greater the pity; but that which will not flourish alongside of aschool-house, cannot, in the nature of things, outlast this century. Itstime must soon come."
"Enough for the day is the evil thereof. I'll risk the future ofslavery, if the South, in a body, goes out of the Union."
"In other words, you'll shut out schools and knowledge, in order to keepslavery in existence. The Abolitionists claim it to be a relic ofbarbarism, and you admit it could not exist with general education amongthe people."
"Of course it could not. If Sandy, for instance, knew he were as good aman as I am--and he would be if he were educated--do you suppose hewould vote as I tell him, go and come at my bidding, and live on mycharity? No, sir! give a man knowledge, and, however poor he may be,he'll act for himself."
"Then free-schools and general education would destroy slavery?"
"Of course they would. The few cannot rule when the many know theirrights. If the poor whites realized that slavery kept them poor, wouldthey not vote it down? But the South and the world are a long way offfrom general education. When it comes to that, we shall need no laws,and no slavery, for the millennium will have arrived."
"I'm glad you think slavery will not exist d
uring the millennium," Ireplied, good-humoredly; "but how is it that you insist the negro isnaturally inferior to the white, and still admit that the 'white trash,'are far below the black slaves?"
"Education makes the difference. We educate the negro enough to make himuseful to us; but the poor white man knows nothing. He can neither readnor write, and not only that, he is not trained to any usefulemployment. Sandy, here, who is a fair specimen of the tribe, obtainshis living just like an Indian, by hunting, fishing, and stealing,interspersed with nigger-catching. His whole wealth consists of twohounds and pups; his house--even the wooden trough his miserablechildren eat from--belongs to me. If he didn't catch a runaway-niggeronce in a while, he wouldn't see a dime from one year to another."
"Then you have to support this man and his family?"
"Yes, what I don't give him he steals. Half a dozen others poach on mein the same way."
"Why don't you set them at work?"
"They can't be made to work. I have hired them time and again, hoping tomake something of them, but I never got one to work more than half a dayat a time. It's their nature to lounge and to steal."
"Then why do you keep them about you?"
"Well, to be candid, their presence is of use in keeping the blacks insubordination, and they are worth all they cost me, because I controltheir votes."
"I thought the blacks were said to be entirely contented?"
"No, not contented. I do not claim that. I only say that they are unfitfor freedom. I might cite a hundred instances in which it has been theirruin."
"I have not heard of one. It seems strange to me that a man who cansupport another cannot support himself."
"Oh! no, it's not at all strange. The slave has hands, and when themaster gives him brains, he works well enough; but to support himself heneeds both hands and brains, and he has only hands. I'll give you a casein point: At Wilmington, N. C., some years ago, there lived a negro bythe name of Jack Campbell. He was a slave, and was employed, before theriver was deepened so as to admit of the passage of large vessels up tothe town, in lightering cargoes to the wharves. He hired his time of hismaster, and carried on business on his own account. Every one knew him,and his character for honesty, sobriety, and punctuality stood so highthat his word was considered among merchants as good as that of thefirst business-men of the place. Well, Jack's wife and children werefree, and he finally took it into his head to be free himself. Hearranged with his master to purchase himself within a specified time, ateight hundred dollars, and he was to deposit his earnings in the handsof a certain merchant till they reached the required sum. He went on,and in three years had accumulated nearly seven hundred dollars, whenhis owner failed in business. As the slave has no right of property,Jack's earnings belonged by law to his master, and they were attached bythe Northern creditors (mark that, _by Northern creditors_), and takento pay the master's debts. Jack, too, was sold. His new owner alsoconsented to his buying himself, at about the price previously agreedon. Nothing discouraged, he went to work again. Night and day he toiled,and it surprised every one to see so much energy and firmness ofpurpose in a negro. At last, after four more years of labor, heaccomplished his purpose, and received his free-papers. He had workedseven years--as long as Jacob toiled for Rachel--for his freedom, andlike the old patriarch he found himself cheated at last. I was presentwhen he received his papers from his owner--a Mr. William H. Lippitt,who still resides at Wilmington--and I shall never forget the ecstasy ofjoy which he showed on the occasion. He sung and danced, and laughed,and wept, till my conscience smote me for holding my own niggers, whenfreedom might give them so much happiness. Well, he went off that dayand treated some friends, and for three days afterward lay in thegutter, the entreaties of his wife and children having no effect on him.He swore he was free, and would do as he 'd---- pleased.' He hadpreviously been a class-leader in the church, but after getting hisfreedom he forsook his previous associates, and spent his Sundays andevenings in a bar-room. He neglected his business; people lostconfidence in him, and step by step he went down, till in five years hesunk into a wretched grave. That was the effect of freedom on _him_, andit would be the same on all of his race."
"It is clear," I replied, "_he_ could not bear freedom, but that doesnot prove he might not have 'endured' it if he had never been a slave.His overjoy at obtaining liberty, after so long a struggle for it, ledto his excesses and his ruin. According to your view, neither the blacknor the poor white is competent to take care of himself. The Almighty,therefore, has laid upon _you_ a triple burden; you not only have toprovide for yourself and your children, but for two races beneath you,the black and the clay-eater. The poor nigger has a hard time, but itseems to me you have a harder one."
"Well, it's a fact, we do. I often think that if it wasn't for the colorand the odor, I'd willingly exchange places with my man Jim."
The Colonel made this last remark in a half-serious, half-comic way,that excited my risibilities, but before I could reply, the carriagestopped, and Jim, opening the door, announced:
"We's har, massa, and de prayin' am gwine on."
[Footnote I: The foregoing statistics are correct. That small number ofslave-holders sustains the system of slavery, and has caused thisterrible rebellion. They are, almost to a man, rebels and secessionists,and we may cover the South with armies, and keep a file of soldiers uponevery plantation, and not smother this insurrection, unless we breakdown the power of that class. Their wealth gives them their power, andtheir wealth is in their slaves. Free their negroes by an act ofemancipation, or confiscation, and the rebellion will crumble to piecesin a day. Omit to do it, and it will last till doomsday.
The power of this dominant class once broken, with landed property atthe South more equally divided, a new order of things will arise there.Where now, with their large plantations, not one acre in ten is tilled,a system of small farms will spring into existence, and the wholecountry be covered with cultivation. The six hundred thousand men whohave gone there to fight our battles, will see the amazing fertility ofthe Southern soil--into which the seed is thrown and springs up withoutlabor into a bountiful harvest--and many of them, if slavery is crushedout, will remain there. Thus a new element will be introduced into theSouth, an element that will speedily make it a loyal, prosperous, and_intelligent_ section of the Union.
I would interfere with no one's rights, but a rebel in arms against hiscountry has no rights; all that he has "is confiscate." Will the loyalpeople of the North submit to be ground to the earth with taxes to paythe expenditures of a war, brought upon them by these Southernoligarchists, while the traitors are left in undisturbed possession ofevery thing, and even their slaves are exempted from taxation? It werewell that our legislators should ask this question now, and not waittill it's asked of them by THE PEOPLE.]
Among the Pines; or, South in Secession Time Page 9