Of course society entertainments in Richmond during the war partook of the nature that pertained to everything else. They were exceedingly few and such as took place were novel or unique in character. When a city of the staid and fixed character like Richmond increased its resident population in a few months from sixty thousand people to one hundred and twenty thousand or more, the newcomers being largely refugees from all parts of the South, together with Confederate officials and their families, also from all over the South and when in addition this new element furnished very much of the life of the Confederate capitol it may be comprehended what was the result socially. Overhanging the city was the constant menace and stir of the great conflict. So that while entertaining constantly took place, it was unobtrusive and exceedingly simple. The most elaborate receptions were those at the Governor’s Mansion, simple as they were. The more prominent given by any private individual was by a well known and wealthy merchant where the refreshments consisted exclusively of ice cream and pound cake. The usual and popular method of entertaining were what might probably now be styled evening, not afternoon teas; in place however of the elaborate refreshments which might now be expected to be found at such was then really served tea, then a rare and wonderful luxury. In addition to the tea served in cups and handed around to those sitting in the parlor was also served buttered bread, very seldom cake; it being remembered that white sugar was also a great rarity in war times. I attended a wedding of the daughter of one of the most prominent gentlemen in Richmond. There were no refreshments and there were no presents whatsoever to the bride. I do not think there was at the close of the war a single jewelry store in existence in the City.
One of the most remarkable features of the war was the intense animosity engendered among neighbors with sympathies on opposite sides. Those who were formerly most intimate friends now became most bitter enemies, not only ceasing all intercourse, but ready to inflict contumely and injury on each other. This spirit was not so apparent in the South because with almost unanimity the Southern people accepted the results of secession whatever opposition they may have first offered. But in the North on the border line where there was a numerous Southern element within the Northern lines this bitter antagonism was pronounced, the more so against all known to be in sympathy with the South. No more typical place existed for this than Baltimore. In the towns and cities of what is now West Virginia the same conditions existed. From Baltimore and Maryland large numbers had gone South to engage in the service. Besides these associations with the Confederate soldiers from Maryland very many of whom came from some of the wealthiest and most prominent families of the State were the business and social ties that had grown up between the South and Baltimore as the Southern metropolis, so that with few exceptions the leading people of the city were in sympathy with the Southern cause. In many cases confiscation of the property of those who had gone south took place, confined of course under the Constitution to the life of the party affected. In other cases arrests were made under the smallest pretexts, all sorts of persecutions little and great were indulged in towards the Southern sympathizers, espionage being one of the numerous annoyances. Relationship whether near or remote seemed to make slight difference, and it seems now almost impossible to account for the bitterness engendered. Of course material interests were originally responsible, and no doubt the divergent views over whether the state should or not secede, with the results that would affect such material interests and the high pitch to which the contentions over the matter wrought up the advocates pro or con were the causes that led to the bitterness that existed. The Southerners were styled “secessionists,” “rebels”, “traitors”, “copperheads”, with the soldiers however a Southern soldier was always “Rebel” or a “Johnny Reb”. The favorite popular ballad commenced something like “We’ll hang Jeff Davis on a sour apple tree.” In the South on the other hand there was but one name for the Northerner and whether soldier or civilian he was invariably called “yankee”. Deep down in the Southern heart however there was no recognition of a social relation with neighbors of Northern sympathies and for some years after the war ended I knew of instances of Southern women, who in marrying Union army officers were regarded not only as having impaired their social status but as having done an act to reflect upon their own family standing. And at the close of the war, in Maryland, particularly in Baltimore, there was a distinct spirit manifested to sedulously ostracise socially those who had been active in espousing the Union cause during the war. And as equally a generous welcome was extended to all who came from the South. It seems almost inconceivable to those of the present day not aware of the bitter antagonism existing during the war that such could ever indeed have existed. To illustrate what would occur on a slightest pretext: In some way it was suggested that a Confederate flag was harbored in our house. The provost marshal sent a company of soldiers who surrounded the house, while the Captain and a guard accompanied by my father searched every portion of the premises from the top to the cellar with a perfectly fruitless result. Again three paroled Confederate prisoners called upon my father to be extended some assistance pecuniarily. This he unhesitatingly extended to all needy Confederate prisoners who called upon him, and while talking with these three word was conveyed to the provost marshal that a seditious meeting was taking place in his house, resulting in a provost guard being sent who placed my father and his visitors under arrest, to be quickly released, however, as soon as the matter was investigated. The smallest pretext and barest suspicion of disloyal sentiment or act led to invasion of the sanctity of one’s house and an interference with one’s business or professional duties.
But with all the sectional antagonism, the women of Southern sympathies in Northern communities wrought out results that showed their disregard of militaryism; for they were unsparing in their work to help the Southern prisoners. No prisoners with an acquaintance of a friend among the women was allowed to suffer for clothes or luxuries and to help the large bodies of Southern prisoners in Northern prisons, sewing societies were formed that met regularly at the members’ houses where all kinds of clothes needed by the prisoners were made up. These meetings which I often attended were a delightful experience. A vast number of pretty girls and young married women all actively engaged in sewing and cutting out, exchanging experiences and information and each occasion to be wound up with light refreshments.
A topic of constant discussion is the effect of the war so far as the negro is concerned. I have seen the negro in slavery before and during the war and now a freedman for forty years since the war closed and I feel that I am capable of expressing an opinion upon the subject. As a slave he was generally well treated, and was generally contented and happy. He was usually free from care or responsibility, all his wants being provided for by his master. He had a task to perform and the performance of it was exacted of him, sometimes this task was exceedingly light, it was scarcely ever severe. It was natural he should wish to be able to essay or not to essay this task as his humor suggested to him and the wish for this I believe was the principal incentive for freedom to most of the slaves. Very many I believe gave the matter of freedom no consideration and cared nothing about it. When the close of the war brought freedom to the vast body of those who were slaves their reasoning suggested to them as it did to very many of the less informed whites that the war had been fought purely to free the negro. The corollary to this in the mind of the negro was that they were the equal of the whites, and immediately upon the close of the war the teaching inculcated among themselves with greatest assiduity was the matter of equality. During the lapse of forty years however the question of equality has in a measure worked itself out as it always does dependent upon personal and material factors. When persons occupy grades of servants, laborers, mechanics, storekeepers, merchants and professional men the question of color in that all are black will not put them on an equality one with the other and the question of equality is not helped by trying to extend the equalizing so as to put the colored man whatever his condition in life on a level with the white man whatever his condition. This was a struggle so patent in the case of the freedmen immediately after the close of the war that was bound in the course of years to disappear from the hopelessness of it. The result is that from my observation the negro has measurably been bettered after the many years that have elapsed since the war, so that now his deportment and manners are better, he is more honest and he has not deteriorated as a worker and he is getting nearer to the deportment he possessed before his character was disrupted by the harmful teachings of those idealists in the New England States who professed before and during the war to be his only true friends.
There was one restriction upon the negro in slavery that was a great source of trouble to him and that was the existence of the law which forbade absence from home after dark except upon a written pass furnished by the master or his agent, any member of the family as a quasi agent, even the children could give these passes, and I have often given such. Absence without such pass subjected the slave to arrest and detention until morning when a trial took place in the Mayor’s court, the penalty being the public whipping post. This was about the only occasion a slave in any well ordered family was likely to be visited with a whipping, which was then a legal penalty inflicted by public authority for a violation of the law. And such whipping was very apt to arouse indignation on the part of the master and certainly his family between whom and the slaves there always existed a bond of affection as well as material interest. So far from whipping slaves by the master’s authority not only did self interest forbid this, but as before indicated this was recognized as one of the acts of maltreatment which resulted in loss of social status to any family that was known to so deal with their slaves. A tender regard for slaves was so assiduously exacted by public sentiment in the South that it was accepted as a serious reflection to sell one. I have frequently read accounts of the awful slave pens and jails where slaves being sold were detained until a purchaser and new master was found all of which accounts are purely mythical written by dreamers with vivid imaginations and no actual experience. I have been again and again in these houses of slave dealers where slaves remained pending a sale. The last one I visited was in accompanying my father for the purpose of purchasing a cook. All of those present, some twenty-five women, were called to the large front room and they ranged themselves in line. Every one was neatly dressed and showed in their appearance and demeanor unmistakable signs of kind treatment and being well cared for. Thinking people reading such accounts must see instantly that outside of any sentiment of humanity good business policy required the best treatment at such places. The slaves were sent there to be sold and the best price was wanted and that price was to be obtained only when a good impression was made on the purchaser and it was made alone by the appearance of the slave. To secure a healthful appearance and indications of a good disposition and temperament required good treatment, and the disposition and temperament was so carefully looked after by a purchaser as health and ability to work, for it was recognized that most slaves came to slave dealers’ hands because the previous master had found some trouble on this score of disposition or temperament this being the single exception outside of failure in business when an owner felt justified by public opinion to make sale of his slaves.
The life on a large plantation for a negro slave was an almost ideal life. Each plantation of from about five hundred to several thousand acres with its several hundred slaves was a perfect community in itself. Every trade and occupation necessary to the effective running of the plantation was represented. One of the slaves was a skilled blacksmith and wheelwright, another a competent carpenter, still another a shoemaker and so on throughout the list of utilities. In the order of dignity and preferment the house servants came first. There were plenty of them in every household and the work assigned to each was exceedingly light, they were dressed well, ate the same food used by the family, were well trained both mentally and morally, participated from the ties of interest that bound them to the family in its pleasure to a greater extent than could have been experienced by hired servants and in sickness or trouble were cared for with a tenderness no less than would be shown to a favorite child. Next in the order of regard came the coachman, the gardener, the assistant overseer, who was always a slave; indeed all whose duties brought them more especially in frequent contact with the whites on the plantation. Then came the field hands, both men and women, and no happier lot of human beings in their work could be found than were ordinarily these same people whatever might be the task to which they were assigned. I have been with them in hoeing corn, in cutting wheat, in threshing grain, in curing tobacco, indeed in every work which went on and I speak from my own personal experience in stating as I do the spirit with which they worked. Every provision was made for their well being, self interest of the master, independent of dictates of humanity, and pressure of public opinion required this. The negro quarters were sufficiently far from the house to permit of the pleasures that appealed to the negro heart without the noise disturbing the white folks. Each negro family usually had a cabin, ample and comfortable, with a garden attached in which were raised vegetables and the hours of field labor were such as to leave ample time to cultivate this garden. Rations of staple food were served with the same regularity and provisions for health and comfort as in army life. They were supplied with ample clothing. Whether in health or sickness and from birth to death the care of his slaves was the first regard of the slave owner, and an exception to such was not tolerated in the community. The family bible of the master’s family first contained the births, deaths and marriages of the members of his family, then in the same bible followed exactly similar entries with reference to his slaves. The members of his family became the instructors of the negro children in Sunday school work. The adult negroes were given ample opportunity and encouraged to attend religious meetings. The negro slave was indeed without a care or anxiety for his comfort or welfare from the time of his birth to the period when he was tenderly laid away in the plot set aside on every plantation for the negro burial ground.
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
- Silently corrected typographical errors and variations in spelling.
- Archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings retained as printed.