SOCIAL CONDITIONS
In the peculiar internal State-relations which we have been considering, South Carolina was unique. But in the social and domestic conditions now to be described, she was a true type and representative of the other Southern States.
It is an accepted truth that in all lands economic conditions determine social relations. In the South, the stability of the former insured a corresponding stability in the latter. To borrow a figure from geology, there were no “faults” in the stratification of Southern society. Each stratum rested secure and well-defined upon the one beneath it, with none of the perplexing sudden “dips” and “out croppings,” common in other parts of America. In that land of belated nineteenth century chivalry and feudalism, the long-exploded axiom that it took “three generations to make a gentleman” still held sway as the law governing social usage. As is the case with all laws, however, there were exceptions to this one. Men of force of character and intellectual gifts stepped over class barriers at one stride, and took their place at once in the very fore front of the social ranks.
Divisions and subdivisions of society existed, but into these intricate complexities it is not necessary to enter here. Enough to say that the “upper-crust” was composed exclusively of the landed proprietors and professional men. Of trade, this class had a holy horror, although they recognized “degrees” in infamy; holding with Cicero that, while the “retail” trader was to be regarded as “unmitigatedly base,” the “wholesale” trader might be accounted “mitigatedly” so.
Next to this topmost layer came the factors. The factor combined in his own person the functions of banker, commission merchant, and general factotum. He sold the planter’s crop, invested his proceeds, negotiated his loans, and advanced him money when required. Socially, the factor was the connecting link between the mercantile class and the landed gentry, to whom, indeed, he was often closely allied by blood. For it was the Southern custom to pass into a counting-house and thereby convert into “factors,” such planters’ sons as were considered incapable of receiving a classical or professional education, and showed no special aptitude for any particular calling.
Below the factor class were innumerable gradations gradually descending until, at the bottom of the social scale, were to be found the poor whites, or “crackers,” as they were contempteously termed. Of this element nothing need be said, as its influence was nil; the Old South being practically composed of but two classes—its aristocracy and its negroes.
In those old days the tone of public morals was pure and high. As a rule, a Southern gentleman’s word was as good as his bond; for any imputation on his honor he regarded as a disgrace, and disgrace was the one thing he dared not face. To these people wealth was not the be-all and the end-all of existence. Not that they underrated its importance or despised its advantages, but their whole manner of life was a protest against making wealth the standard by which to gauge the sum of human achievement, affixing, as it were, a money value to all things in the heavens above and in the earth beneath.
Again, they were—not obstructionists indeed—but strong conservatives; holding that change is not necessarily synonymous with improvement, but that it sometimes means retrogression rather than advance. And holding this creed, they were not carried away by every vagary which presented itself, whether masquerading in the guise of social panacea or political hocus-pocus.
The conditions of Southern life naturally tended to produce and foster individuality, and perhaps the most marked trait in Southern character was an almost fierce independence and a hot resentment of any semblance of control. The Southerner was quick tempered and somewhat over hasty in taking offence at fancied slights. But there was nothing vindictive or malevolent in his nature, and, his outburst of temper over, if cool reflection showed him to have been in the wrong, he did not hesitate frankly to acknowledge himself in fault, and make ample apology for his mistaken judgment and hot words. As a class, Southerners undoubtedly held a very good opinion of themselves; and sometimes, where mental ballast was lacking, this comfortable consciousness of being at quits with the world went to the head, and effervesced in silly superciliousness and irritating condescension. But for the most part, the people bore themselves with irreproachable courtesy and the quiet dignity which springs from self-respect. As a race they were a brave, fearless people, truthful, honest, and generous to a fault.
Besides this common heritage however, the folk of the Carolina coast possessed certain endowments peculiarly their own—a finished grace of manner, a keen sense of humor, and a power of quick repartee—their birthright by virtue of descent from a Huguenot ancestry. This French element was in truth, a very appreciable quantity in the Carolina equation, exercising considerable formative influence on character as well as manners. Unlike the French settlers in other parts of the United States, the Carolina Huguenots, notwithstanding the inhospitable reception given them on their arrival in the colony, held their own manfully in their adopted country; and soon established such friendly relations with their English neighbors, that in the course of a generation or so, by intermarriage with these, they had ceased to be a distinctive class of the population, and were only to be traced by their French names, which they had bestowed upon half the families in the lower section of the State.
One trait remains to be mentioned—a trait common to the entire South. I allude to the ardent patriotism and intense State-love of the people. This is proved by the records of the Civil War, which show how gladly substance and life were both devoted to the service of their beloved country. Even now, a thrill runs through one, at the recollection of the heroic self-sacrifice and whole-hearted devotion of the united Southern people to their “Lost Cause.”
Charleston, S. C. H. E. Belin
(Conclusion next month.)