Let us resume our journey.
I arose at daybreak, on the morning after my arrival in Petersburg.Dec 26, 1848 The clouds were broken, and a keen breeze from the north reminded me of the presence of winter. Accompanied by one of the early risers of the town, I crossed the fine bridge over the Appomattox, and strolled over Archer's Hill, whereon the Americans planted their cannon and disturbed the inmates of Bollingbrook. The little village on that side retains its original name of Pocahunta or Pocahontas, and presents a natural curiosity which tradition has connected with the memory of that princess. It is a large stone, hollowed like a bowl by the hand of Nature, and is never without water in it, except in times of extreme drought. It is called Pocahontas' s Wash-basin; and the vulgar believe that the "dearest daughter" of Powhatan actually laved her limbs in its concavity. It was formerly several rods from its present position at the northwest corner of the bridge, and was broken in its removal. Strong cement keeps it whole, and it is regarded with considerable interest by the curious visitor.
Returning to Petersburg, we ascended to Bollingbrook, and just as the sun came up from the distant hills, I sketched the view on page 545. At nine o'clock, after receiving minute directions respecting my future route for a hundred miles, I took the reins and started for the Roanoke. For the first sixteen miles, to the banks of Stony Brook, the country is sandy and quite level, and the roads were fine. I crossed that stream at Dinwiddie Court House, the capitol of the county of that name, where, a few days before, Society, by the use of a sheriff and strong cord, had strangled William Dandridge Eppes, for the murder of a
* I have mentioned, on page 21, the bargain entered into by the British ministry and some German princess for the furnishing of troops, by the latter, to fight the Americans. That bargain was rendered more heinous by the methods used to obtain the requisite number of men. Laborers were seized in the fields and work-shops, and large numbers were taken from the churches while engaged in their devotions, and hurried to the barracks without being allowed a parting embrace with their families. That this was the method to be employed was evidently known to the British government several months before the bargain was consummated; "for on the fourteenth of November, 1775, the honest-hearted king wrote as follows to Lord North: "The giving commissions to German officers to get men I can by no means consent to, for it in plain English amounts to making me a kidnapper, which I can not think a very honorable occupation." * Throughout Europe the whole transaction was viewed with horror as a great crime against humanity. Frederick the Great took every occasion to express his contempt for the "scandalous man-traffic of his neighbors." It is said that whenever any of those hired Brunswickers and Hessians had to pass through any portion of his territory, he claimed to levy on them the usual toll for so many head of cattle, since, he said, they had been sold as such **
** Fort Frederick is yet a well-preserved relie of colonial times. It is upon the north bank of the Potomac, in Washington county, Maryland, about fifty miles below Cumberland. It was built in 1755-6, under the direction of Governor Sharpe. The material is stone, and cost about thirty thousand dollars. The fort is quadrangular, and contained barracks sufficient for seven hundred men. This was one of the six forts built as frontier defenses against the encroachments of the Freneh and Indians.
Capital Punishment.—Husbandry in Lower Virginia.—Fruits of the Social System.
young man. The first murder was sufficiently horrid; the second was doubly so, because Christian men and women and innocent children saw it done in cool blood, and uttered not a word of remonstrance or reprobation! It had evidently been a holiday for the people; and all the way from Petersburg to the Meherrin, it was a stock subject for conversation. A dozen times I was asked if I saw "the hanging;" and a dozen times I shuddered at the evidence of the prevailing savagism In the nineteenth century, even in the heart of our republic. But the gallows is toppling, and another generation will be amazed at the cruelty of their fathers.
From Stony Brook to the Nottaway River, a distance of fifteen miles, the country is broken, and patches of sandy soil with pine forests, alternated with red clay, bearing oaks, chestnuts, and gum-trees. Worse roads I never expect to travel, for they would be impassable. Oftentimes Charley would sink to his knees in the soft earth, which was almost as adhesive as tar. The country is sparsely populated, and the plantations generally bore evidences of unskillful culture. Although most of the soil is fertile, and might be made very productive, yet so wretchedly is it frequently managed that twenty bushels of wheat is considered a good yield for an acre, and corn in like proportion. A large number of negroes are raised in that section, and constitute the chief wealth of the inhabitants; for the land, within thirty miles of the fine markets of Petersburg and City Point, averages in value only about five dollars an acre. Good roads would increase its value, but the spirit of internal improvement is very weak there. I was informed by a gentleman with whom I passed the night within a mile of the Nottaway, that several plantations in his neighborhood did not yield corn and bacon sufficient for the negroes, and that one or two men or women were sold annually from each to buy food for the others. "Thus," as he expressively observed, "they eat each other up!" Tobacco is the staple product, yielding from five hundred to one thousand pounds per acre; but, in the absence of manure, it destroys the vitality of the soil. During a ride of seventy or eighty miles toward the Roanoke, I saw hundreds of acres thus deadened and yellow with "poverty grass," or green with shrub pines. Many proprietors are careless or indolent, and leave the management of their estates to overseers. These, in turn, lacking the stimulus of interest, seem to leave affairs in the hands of the negroes, and the negroes are always willing to trust to Providence. The consequence is, fitful labor, unskillfully applied; and the fertile acres remain half barren from year to year. To a Northern man accustomed to pictures of industry and thrift, directed and enjoyed by enlightened workers, these things appear big with evil consequences. They are the fruits of the social system in the Southern States, which has grown reverend with years; a system deprecated by all sound thinkers there, particularly in the agricultural districts, as a barrier to progress, and inimical to genuine prosperity. This subject involves questions proper for the statesman, the political economist, and the moralist to discuss. They are irrelevant to my theme, and I pass them by with this brief allusion, while resting firmly upon the hope that, through equity and wisdom, a brighter day is about to dawn upon the rich valleys and fertile uplands of Virginia and the Carolinas.
I crossed the Nottaway into Brunswick county, at Jones's Bridge. The river is narrow, and lying in a deep bed, its current is often made swift by rains. Such was its condition when I passed over; for rain had been falling since midnight, and when I resumed my journey, it was mingled with snow and hail, accompanied by a strong northwest wind All day the storm continued, but happily for me I was riding with the wind, and kept dry beneath my spacious wagon top. The red clay roads prevailed, occasionally relieved by a sandy district covered with pines, beautified by an undergrowth of holly and laurel. * My
* In many places between Petersburg and Hillsborough, in North Carolina, I observed dead trees covering several acres in patches throughout the pine forests. From one eminence I counted six of these patches in different directions, made visible by their yellow foliage in the midst of the surrounding dark green forest. I was told that they were killed by a worm, which perforates and traverses the bark in every direction. I observed these perforations, appearing like the wounds of buck shot in the bark four or five inches apart. From these, turpentine offer oozed in profusion. These worms are very fatal to the trees. A tree that has been girdled, though its leaves fall, is good timber for three or four years; but a tree attacked by these worms loses all vitality at once, and in twelve or fourteen months is useless for timber purposes. It rapidly decays, and falls to the ground. I was informed that in some instances, where pines constituted the chief value of plantations, this blight had caused the owners to abandon them.