The people of Carolina, who dwell in the lower country, are annually compelled to leave their homes, however attached to them. None can travel without gaining knowledge, and losing prejudices, and the Carolinians are, to a great degree, liberal and intelligent. To remain in summer on the plantations, is at the risk of life; they are therefore found, at that season, in the northern and eastern states, and in Europe. They are social, and in general closely united. In New England, gentlemen of neighboring towns are often unacquainted with each other; but in Carolina, the acquaintance extends over the state. This arises from the intercourse of the capital, where all are found in spring, and from the fellowships that are formed in packets, or while residing or travelling in other states.
It may be thought that the life of a southern agriculturist is one of indolence and ease. It is the very reverse; it is one of far greater activity than is led by gentlemen of wealth elsewhere. The cares of a plantation are sufficient to consume the day, and the planter is often on horseback in his fields, till evening. His notions of space are so liberal, that he will readily ride a dozen miles to dine, and he engages in the chase with his characteristic ardor. No men ride so fearlessly; and the game is followed at full speed in thick woods, among holes, horizontal branches, and prostrate trunks. The social relations are admirable. The season for visiting is never over, and as the social is as much increased as any other principle, by cultivation, here it attains to its best growth. There is, among relatives, great kindliness of feeling, and the circle it embraces is wider than in New England. Any one may, as far as affinity can be traced,
‘Claim kindred there, and have his claim allowed.’
Gentlemen meet at frequent intervals in club houses, often built in the woods, where the entertainment is furnished by each one in turn.
The people of the south have more haughtiness, courtesy, and a higherestimation of personal dignity, than those of the north. Pride is the natural consequence of superiority of station, though it is generally incompatible with meanness. A planter would be more apt to do what he would be sorry for, than what he would be ashamed of. A slight wound of pride is more strictly avenged, than a greater injury to property; and a lack of courtesy is perhaps as much reprobated as a breach in morals. Duelling is the natural growth of such a state, and though it is not frequent, it is but too well established by custom. The challenged is held to fight, even if he feel no resentment, or has done no injustice; and he sometimes perils his life for mere expediency: as he would put it to some risk to preserve his property, he is led to believe that he must do it also to save his character.
‘The poles,’ says a recent traveller, ‘are not more diametrically opposed, than a native of the states south of the Potomac, and a New Englander. They differ in every thing of thought, feeling, and opinion. The latter is a man of regular and decorous habits, shrewd, intelligent, and persevering; phlegmatic in temperament, devoted to the pursuits of gain, and envious of those who are more successful than himself. The former—I speak of the opulent and educated—is distinguished by a high-mindedness, generosity, and hospitality, by no means predicable of his more eastern neighbors. He values money only for the enjoyments it can procure, is fond of gayety, given to social pleasures, somewhat touchy and choleric, and as eager to avenge an insult as to show a kindness. To fight a duel in the New England states would, under almost any circumstances, be disgraceful. To refuse a challenge, to tolerate even an insinuation derogatory from personal honor, would be considered equally so in the South.
‘In point of manner, the southern gentlemen are decidedly superior to all others of the union. Being more dependent on social intercourse, they are at greater pains, perhaps, to render it agreeable. There is more spirit and vivacity about them, and far less of that prudent caution, which, however advantageous on the exchange, is by no means prepossessing at the dinner-table, or in the drawing-room. When at Washington, I was a good deal thrown into the society of members from the South, and left it armed, by their kindness, with a multitude of letters, of which I regret that my hurried progress did not permit me to avail myself. Many of them were men of much accomplishment, and I think it probable that Englishmen, unconnected with business, would generally prefer the society of gentlemen of this portion of the union, to any other which the country affords.’
The amusements and occupations of the people inhabiting the valley of the Mississippi afford no great scope to the pen of the true chronicler, though they have often furnished materials for the foreign traveller and the novelist.A new country, inhabited by what may be called, in some sort, a new people, must, however, present some scenes which may serve to amuse, if not to instruct.[91]
New Orleans seems, by common consent, to be the focus in which the eccentricities of Missouri, Kentucky, and the rest of the western country concentrate. Here are seen the Spaniard with his lazo, the Kentuckian with his broad-horn, or flat-bottomed ark, the merchant from Europe or theNew England states, stepping stately from the deck of his ship, the slave with his burthen on his shoulders, and the gambler looking out for his prey. Not the least interesting of the classes of this heterogenous population, are the women who have not the pure white complexion of the Atlantic coast, or the crisp locks and bent limbs of their remote African ancestors. These females hold an anomalous position among the races by whom they are surrounded, which will require some further comment. They are called quadroons, mustees, mulattoes, &c. as the purity of their parentage or the circumstances of their birth may require.
These women, being generally the offspring of white men of standing and respectability, are left in singularly unfortunate circumstances. They have the feelings, and, in a considerable degree, the education and sentiments of their more pure-blooded countrywomen. Nevertheless, the prejudice, or feeling, be it natural or not, which inclines every free white American to view the whole African race as an inferior order of mankind, prevents any legitimate union with them. So situated, they make the best of the condition into which the accident of birth, and not their own fault, has thrown them. They form temporary connections with such respectable whites as are able to maintain them in ease, and attachments are often formed, which are not surpassed, or scarcely equalled, by any of which we read in romance. However, the connection is generally considered in the light of a bargain. The mother promenades with her fairer daughter on the levee, till some white stranger, smitten with the charms of the latter, makes a proposal. A bargain is made, limited in time, or unlimited, according to circumstances, and a breach of faith, thus plighted, rarely occurs. This connection, infamous as it seems, involves no disgrace in New Orleans. It is the most respectable condition to which a female, who is conscious of the taint of black blood, can aspire. She is neither shunned nor scorned, and may hold up her head in any company into which she may happen to enter.