Knoxville, (named in honor of Revolutionary General Knox,) the most considerable town of East Tennessee, is situated on abrupt hills, on the north bank of the Holston River, which is navigable by steamers to this point. Here is the junction of the East Tennessee and Virginia, and East Tennessee and Georgia railroads. The city has something more than eight thousand inhabitants. It was formerly the capital of the State. It is surrounded by fortified hills.
The place received rough treatment during the war. The Bell House, at which I stopped, was a miserable shell, carpetless and dilapidated, full of broken windows. The landlord apologized for not putting it into repair. “I don’t know how long I shall stop here. Hotel-keeping a’n’t my business. Nigger-dealing is my business. But that’s played out. I’ve bought and sold in my day over six hundred niggers,”—spoken with mournful satisfaction, mingled pride and regret. “Now I don’t know what I shall turn my hand to. I’m a Georgian; I came up here from Atlanta time it was burned.”
At the table of the Bell House, a Southern gentleman who sat next me called out to one of the waiters, a good-looking colored man, perhaps thirty years of age,—“Here, boy!”
“My name is Dick,” said the “boy,” respectfully.
“You’ll answer to the name I call you, or I’ll blow a hole through you!” swore the Southern gentleman.
Dick made no reply, but went about his business. The Southern gentleman proceeded, addressing the company:—
“Last week, in Chattanooga, I said to a nigger I found at the railroad, ‘Here, Buck! show me the baggage-room.’ He said, ‘My name a’n’t Buck.’ I just put my six-shooter to his head, and, by ——! he didn’t stop to think what his name was, but showed me what I wanted.”
This gentlemanly way of dealing with the “d——d impudent niggers” was warmly applauded by all the guests at the table, except one, who did not see the impudence; showing that they were gentlemen of a similar spirit.
There were a great many freedmen crowded into Knoxville from Georgia and the Carolinas, whence they had escaped during the war. The police were arresting and sending them back. East Tennesseeans, though opposed to slavery and secession, do not like niggers. There is at this day more prejudice against color among the middle and poorer classes—the “Union” men, of the South, who owned few or no slaves—than among the planters who owned them by scores and hundreds. There was a freedmen’s school-house burned in Knoxville, while I was in that part of the State; and on reaching Nashville, I learned that the negro testimony bill had been defeated in the legislature by the members from East Tennessee.
East Tennessee, owning but a handful of slaves, and having little interest in slavery, opposed secession by overwhelming majorities. She opposed the holding of a convention, at the election of February, 1861, by a vote of 30,903 against 5,577; and, at the election in June following, opposed the ordinance of separation submitted to the people by the legislature, by 32,923 votes against 14,780. The secession element proved a bitter and violent minority. Neighborhood feuds ensued, of a fierce political and personal character. When the Confederate army came in, the secessionists pointed out their Union neighbors, and caused them to be robbed and maltreated. They exposed the retreats of hunted conscripts lying out in forests and caves, and assisted in the pursuit of loyal refugees. When the National forces possessed the country, the Union men retaliated. It was then the persecutor’s turn to be stripped of his property and driven from his home.