This man Brown, they told me, had a large family, and lived in a little cabin on the mountain. He pretended to plant a corn patch, but he never worked it, and didn’t make any corn. They reckoned he lived pretty much on what corn and hogs he could steal, and on game. The children were described as pitiably, “scrawny,” half-starved little wretches. Last summer his wife had come to one of them, saying they had no corn, and she wanted to pick cotton to earn some. He had let her go in with the niggers and pick. She kept at it for two days, and took her pay in corn. Afterward he saw her little boy “toting” it to the mill to be ground—much too heavy a load for him.
I asked if there were many such vagabonds.
“Yes, a great many on the mountain, and they make a heap of trouble. There is a law by which they might be taken up [if it could be proved that they have no ‘visible means of support’] and made to work to support their families; but the law is never used.”
Speaking of another man, one said: “He’ll be here to breakfast, at your house to dinner, and at Dr. ——’s to supper, leaving his family to live as best they can.” They “reckoned” he got most of his living in that way, while his family had to get theirs by stealing. He never did any work except hunting, and they “reckoned” he killed about as many shoats and yearlings as deer and turkeys.
They said that this sort of people were not often intemperate; they had no money to buy liquor with; now and then, when they’d sold some game or done a little work to raise money, they’d have a spree; but they were more apt to gamble it off or spend it for fine clothes and things to trick out their wives.
June —. To-day, I am passing through a valley of thin, sandy soil, thickly populated by poor farmers. Negroes are rare, but occasionally neat, new houses, with other improvements, show the increasing prosperity of the district. The majority of dwellings are small log cabins of one room, with another separate cabin for a kitchen; each house has a well, and a garden inclosed with palings. Cows, goats, mules and swine, fowls and doves are abundant. The people are more social than those of the lower country, falling readily into friendly conversation with a traveller. They are very ignorant; the agriculture is wretched and the work hard. I have seen three white women hoeing field crops to-day. A spinning-wheel is heard in every house, and frequently a loom is clanging in the gallery, always worked by women; every one wears homespun. The negroes have much more individual freedom than in the rich cotton country, and are not unfrequently heard singing or whistling at their work.
Tennessee, June 29th.—At nightfall I entered a broader and more populous valley than I had seen before during the day, but for some time there were only small single room log cabins, at which I was loath to apply for lodging. At length I reached a large and substantial log house with negro cabins. The master sat in the stoop. I asked if he could accommodate me.
“What do you want?”