SPECTATOR'S LIBRARY.

TiLVZIA4

The Slave States of America. By J. S. Buckingham, Esq., Author of " America.

Historical, Statistic, and Descriptive." In two rots .Psher. Fiume,

The Expectant; a Novel. By Miss Ellen Pickering, Author of " Nan Darrell,"

"The Fright," Pre. In three volumes Boone. Poem,

I Watched the Heavens.; a Poem. By V., Author of "IX Poems." Saunders and Of icy. Poems frum Eastern Sources; The Steadfast Prince; and other Poems. By Richard Chenevix Trench. Maros.

BUCKINGHAM'S SLAVE STATES OF AMERICA.

THE subject of these two goodly volumes is Mr. BUCKINGHAM'S tour through portions of the principal Slave States of the Union ; and it possesses more attraction than his explorations in the North- ern and Central provinces, which are visited by every one who crosses the Atlantic. Making Charleston in South Carolina his starting-point, the traveller reached New Orleans by a circuitous or zigzag route ; sometimes using steam-boats, sometimes railways, and sometimes that worst of public conveyances, an American stage, through a country thinly settled or in a state of nature. From New Orleans he ascended to the notorious Natchez, propos- ing a further tour up the Mississippi and its tributary waters ; but he was dissuaded, and came back again ; when he returned to the Northern States, through the upland districts of the Alleghany range,—visiting the different Springs or Spas, and the principal plows in Virginia.

The object of Mr. BUCKTNGHAM in this, as in his Northern tour, was to advance Temperance and Seaman's Friend Societies, and to deliver lectures on Syria, Palestine, or any other country that might stimulate attention. These objects naturally took him out of the line of common tourists ; for it would answer his purpose to visit any town whereshe thought there was a likelihood of attract- ing an audience. Hence be made a more ramifying tour, so to speak, than any one we remember,—sailing through the picturesque passages of the archipelago on the Southern seabord, where the celebrated Sea Island cotton is grown ; ascending or descending the numerous rivers that water the States of Georgia, Alabama, &c.; and traversing by execrable roads the inland sandy wastes and pine forests of those regions, or the beautifully romantic dis- tricts of the Alleghany, where strangers are so rare, that to have seen a person from the "Old Country" is an event in a native's life. By these means, he presents a better and more varied topo- graphical picture than any former traveller through these districts, into the interior of which few have penetrated.

The value of the book, however, is not proportioned to the ex- tent or newness of the ground Mr. BUCKINGHAM passed over; partly, because his mind -is of a superficial character, discerning only the external forms or very obvious qualities of things ; partly, because what is the result of actual observation bears a small pro- portion to what is derived from books. The author's mode of composition is this : when he comes to a state, and very frequently a town, he gives an account of its foundation and subsequent his- tory, with its climate, productions, statistics, and constitution ; all of which, wherever it may have been derived from, is readily acces- sible in numerous books: with a town he proceeds in the same way, except that part of his sources of information on these oc- casions may be the local guide-books, when there happen to be any. It is the same with many of his disquisitions : if he wishes to paint the lawlessness of the Southerners, he stuffs his pages with an account of assassinations from the local newspapers,—as if such pa- ragraphs were never taken by our press; when opposing the planter's arguments that the slaves would not take their freedom, he quotes advertisements offering rewards for runaway. Negroes,—of which we may certainly affirm, that any one likely to read Mr. BUCKING- HAM'S book has seen a good many : and even in subjects of natural history, he illustrates the point by extracts from CUVIER, and other equally well-known naturalists. We do not say that these things are badly done or unreadable, but that it is mere book- making to eke out large volumes by stuffing of this kind, where the reader has been led to expect a book of travels containing the result of original observation. Of the extent to which this kind of manufacture may be carried, an idea may be gathered from the postscript : if this publication is favourably received, the author contemplates two more, one for the Eastern one for the Western States ; which, judging of the future by the past, will give some ten volumes of five or six hundred pages each as the result of Mr. BUCKINGHAM'S American trip.

The general character of the personal narrative and original re- marks is pleasant, but self-complacent and superficial. We read on through well-turned periods, not devoid of agreeable images or sounding arguments ; but no clear and consistent picture is impressed upon the mind. In the author's descriptions, for ex- ample, he enumerates the names of birds, flowers, trees, insects, &c., and tells whether the scene is pleasing or the reverse ; but the essential character is rarely presented, by which we could recognize the original if we ever saw it, or by which we can sepa- rate it from other landscapes in the mind. In argument there is no lack of fluent generalities ; but they possess no novelty, nor do they appear to have been derived from an attentive examination of the living question : the nonsensical sophistry of the Planters is opposed by the worn-out commonplaces of the Abolitionists, and could just as well have been written in England as in America, with a peg to hang the disquisition upon. In the picture of society there is nothing congruous. In some places, Mr. BUCKING- HAM describes the Southern gentlemen as excelling the Northerns in information, manners, accomplishments, and high spirit, as well as in the absence of a mercenary and grasping disposition in busi- ness: a little farther on, be represents them in a totally different light,—not untruly, we dare say, for we suppose he met a newer or a lower class of persons ; but this is mostly left to be inferred by the reader, and is not explained by the writer. Again, the violences and bloody atrocities of the newly-settled districts must have a cause ; but that cause we are left to guess, beyond the vague one of slavery : yet as the same practices do not prevail in the older Slave States, that cause alone is insufficient.

The narrative part, however, truly enough conveys the author's own impressions ; and without prejudice or exaggeration, unless in a few occasional touches against tobacco and stimulating drinks, which are rather rhetorical than bitter. It also furnishes a sort of raw material from which we may deduce a few conclusions touching the results of slavery and the condition of the slaves. As regards the first point—the effects of slavery on the com- munity—it is impossible to speak too darkly ; not so much in the way of morals, as of material improvement. States, whose founda- tion dates far beyond the Revolution, are yet in a condition of the greatest backwardness;—immense tracts unsettled or the settlement only begun ; the roads in a state of nature, miles upon miles of soil left as it was found, the only marks of industry being shown in felling the forest-trees to form the line. The inefficiency of slave-labour is proverbial; (but that involves the question of popu- lation): the point at issue in the view we are taking is its mis- chievous effects upon public opinion. Labour being degrading, no one but the meanest White attempts to gain a livelihood by labour. Of the rest, some follow the higher professions ; many engage in the wildest and most reckless speculations; those who have any thing like an estate live or assume to live upon its profits ; the in- difference to debt, the forestalling of means, and the disposition to make a lucky year the measure of all the rest, that distinguish the landed proprietor almost everywhere, being a leadina° characte- ristic of the slaveholder. The only occupations with which our author seems to have been brought into much contact, were those of hotel-keepers and stage-coachmen. Of these his character is as bad as possible, especially the hotels. The White proprietor is too great a man to attend to his business ; which is abandoned to managers and Negro slaves, who are for the most part unskilful, idle, inattentive, and dishonest. This evil is aggravated by the Coloured servants of the guests, who steal every thing they can lay their hands on ; and sometimes the house is set on fire by the wantonness or vengeance of the slaves. A case of this kind occurred at Augusta; where the BUCKINGHAM family escaped in dishabille, and, notwithstanding the heroism of their European man-servant in rescuing their luggage, lost more than "the value of a thousand dollars, besides "drawings, sketches, minerals, herbarium, and flora, which no money‘puld replace." So far as mere pecuniary loss was concerned, many guests were in much worse plight than Mr. BUCKINGHAM; and an investigation led to this conclusion, more satisfactory to the philosophic investi- gator than to the owners of the lost property— "In the investigation which took place subsequently as to the cause of this fire, there was reason to believe that it was not accidental, but the work of some of the slaves belonging to the establishment. The proprietor, Judge Hale, was a humane and kind master; but he resided in another house, nearly a mile from the hotel, and confided the management of it to others ; moreover, he had lately been ill, and had not visited the hotel for several days. The manager and his assistants, being less just and considerate than the master, exercised, it was said, undue severity on the slaves, or at least on some of them, and im- prisonments and whippings were matters of frequent occurrence. In such cases, it is a very usual mode of revenge with the slaves, to burn down the houses of their oppressors ; for by this means they often succeed in breaking up an establishment in such a manner as to lead to a Bale of their own persons ; and then they have a chance of release from existing tyranny, by being trans- ferred to a new master, with a hope at least of better treatment."

As regards what may be called the individual operation, of slavery—its effects upon individual persons rather than upon the advance of the community—it is not so clear as many could sup- pose whether slaves or masters have the worst of the bargain, always bearing in mind that the slaves are bred to it. Mr. BUCKINGHAM draws the usual and proper distinction between praedial and domestic slavery. The domestic slaves, he says, are frequently better off, physically, than servants in England—are better fed, have less to do, and are perhaps more humoured ; and he thinks it possible that some of this class might refuse freedom if offered to them. The condition of the prsedial slaves differs with the character of the master or manager, and with the nature of the produce raised ; some cultivation being less laborious than others, whilst their food varies with its cheapness in the districts. The cabins or huts of the prmdial slaves are pretty well constructed and neatly arranged. The scanty clothing attracted Mr. BUCIC nvonam's attention most; but he forgets the warmth of the climate. As regards their usage, he does not appear to consider it cruel in a general sense; and indeed the slaves have a stronghold over the, master in his regard to his own interest. We have seen the power that fire gives to slaves who work near property; another way with them is to threaten to "sulk,"—which, if put in execu- tion, renders them useless to the owner, and destroys the sale, for no one will buy a Negro who is "sulking." Incidental circumstances sometimes come out from which it appears that there are still further checks from self-interest and public opinion. Robbery and arson, the two grand slave crimes, are loosely investigated, because if proved they will lead to the notion that the master is severe, and injure his reputation. But hear Mr. BuciiniGHAM. "What enables them to carry on such practices almost with impunity, is the unwillingness of the parties robbed, and of the master of the house in which the robbery takes place, to make any rigid inquiries as to the perpetrator, because the discovery of the thief will injure his master more than himself. If, for instance, the thief should be discovered, the master cannot turn him away without losing the price he paid for him ; nor can he punish him with any severity without exciting such feelings of hatred as may display them- selves in the burning down his house, or otherwise destroying his property : and if he ever intends to sell the slave, the fact of his having been convicted and punished as a thief, would greatly lessen his value. For these reasons, therefore, such matters are usually hushed up ; and the successful robber, see- ing this, is encouraged, of course, to prosecute his career on all tempting oc- casions."

With these difficulties besetting the slave-owners, it is not to be wondered at that the majority of them esteem slavery the curse of the country. From what our author heard, it seems probable that in the older States the system would have been ended before now, but for the abuse and interference of the Abolitionists, roue- in the anger and opposition of the Planters, who are now deter- mined to maintain their "institutions." Allowance must be made for all these statements in talk ; but here is something like facts and figures. There is still, however, the question beyond, whether the free Negro might not prefer squatting to labour.

A slave-cornea's CALCULATIONS AS TO THE COST OF SLAVERY.

In the course of the protracted conversation to which these topics led, a gen- tleman from Kentucky, engaged in the growing of corn and grazing of cattle, himself a slaveholder to a considerable extent, and joining in all the denuncia- tions of the Abolitionists, undertook to show, that after all, slavery was a much greater curse to the owners than it was to the slaves, as it absorbed their capi- tal, ate up their profits, and proved a perpetual obstacle to their progressive prosperity. He said he had not only made the calculation, but actually tried the experiment of comparing the labour of the free White man and the Negro slave; and be found the latter always the dearest of the two. It took, for in- stance, 2,000 dollars to purobase a good male slave. The interest of money in Kentucky being ten per cent, here was 200 dollars a year of actual cost ; but to insure his life it would require at least five per cent more, which would make 300 dollars a year. Add to this the necessary expenses of maintenance while healthy, and medical attendance while sick, with wages of White overseers to every gang of men to see that they do their duty, and other incidental charges ; and he did not think that a slave could cost less, in interest, insurance, sub- sistence, and watching, than 500 dollars, or 100/. sterling a year: yet, after all, he would not do more than half the work of a White man, who could be hired at the same sum, without the outlay of any capital or the incumbrance of maintenance while sick, and was therefore by far the cheapest labourer of the two.

The same gentleman told us of two instances that had happened on his own estate, of ingenious evasions of labour. One man took medicine which he stole from the dispensary, purposely to make himself sick to avoid work ; and when examined by the doctor, he was detected in having spread powdered mustard on his tongue to give it a foul appearance. A female slave, to avoid working for her master, produced such swellings in her arms as to excite the compas- sion of those who thought it to be some dreadful disease ; but the same person, who lay a-bed groaning with agony all day, being detected in the act of wash- ing clothes at night for some persons in the neighbourhood, for which she was to be paid, (and to effect which in secrecy she was found standing nearly up to her middle in a pond concealed under the trees,) afterwards confessed, in order to avoid a flogging, that she had produced the swelling in her arms by thrusting them into a beehive, and keeping them there till they were thoroughly bitten and stung ; and when the swelling began to subside, she repeated the same operation to revive them.

I inquired, "Why, if this were the state of things, they did not cure it by giving freedom to their slaves ? " and the answer was this—" That up to a very recent period the feeling was almost universal in Kentucky, that it would be better to do so, especially as the neighbouring state of Ohio, without slaves, was making so much more rapid strides in prosperity than Kentucky with them ; and that probably in a few years their emancipation would have been agreed upon, but that the Abolitionists of the North wounded their pride; and they de- termined that they would not submit to interference or dictation in the regu- lation of their domestic institution." To this feeling was added another, that of " standing by" the other Slave States of the South, and making com- mon cause with them in a determination not to do any thing by coercion or by threat, but to abide their own time, and act independently of all fear or intimidation.

PRIMITIVE HABITS IN GEORGIA.

In making our excursion to this and some other places in the neighbourhood, we saw many of the country-people coming into town ; some on horseback, some in wagons, some on foot. They were in general as primitive in their dress as the farmers of the remotest parts of England and Wales a century ago, as far as we can judge of these by the pictures and prints of their costume : single-breasted coats without collars, broad-brimmed and low-crowned hats, and gray hair floating in loose locks over the shoulders, were among their pecu- liarities; and in their conversation they were as rough as in their appearance. They are called by the town's-people, "Crackers," from the frequency with which they crack their large whips, as if they derived a peculiar pleasure from the sound ; and in a local little volume entitled "Georgia Scenes," which I bad the opportunity of perusing while in Macon, and which are said to be drawn to the life, it is clear that the manners of the planters in the interior are generally dissipated, their language coarse, and their amusements as bar barons as they were in England three or four centuries ago. The appearance, indeed, of nearly all the men we saw from the country, as well as those travel- ling to and fro on the road as passengers by the stages, was reckless, dirty, dis- sipated, and vulgar, and greatly inferior to that of the American men seen in the Atlantic cities from Savannah to Boston, especially those of the South.

SPARTAN FARE WITHOUT SPARTAN SAUCE.

We halted at Sparta to dine ; but the sight of the public table prepared for the passengers was so revolting, that, hungry as we were after our long and cold ride, early rising, and violent motion, we turned away in disgust from the table, and made our dinner in the coach on bard biscuits. There were three lines of coaches on this road, all leaving at the same hour and arriving at the same time—the mail line, the telegraph line, and the people's line. The passe ,neers from each of these took their seats at the table, and many of them appealed to dine as heartily as if they saw nothing unusual in the fare. But the dirty state of the room in which the table was laid, the filthy condition of the table- cloth, the coarse and broken plates, rusty knives and forks, and large junks of boiled pork, and various messes of corn and rancid butter, added to the coarse and vulgar appearance and manners of most of the guests, made the whole scene the most revolting we had yet witnessed in the country.

AN INDUSTRIOUS CHINESE.

Our voyage down the Mississippi was not attended by any event to disturb the pleasure of our way. The accommodations of the steamer were excellent, the captain peculiarly attentive and obliging, the table pad, the attendants clean, and the passengers few and orderly. Amieng the cabin-waiters was a Chinese from Canton, who bad been six years absent from his home, and spoke better English than any Chinese I had ever met with, though some names were of unconquerable difficulty to him. The nearest approach, for instance, that he could make to Boston, was to call it Poem. He intended returning to Canton when he had saved up a little more money ; for, being sober and prudent, he bad succeeded in accumulating several hundred dollars. When I asked him whether he would not be rejected as one who had gone to live among barba- rians, he replied that he should smuggle himself ashore, and not let that fact be known. For this purpose he continued to retain his long tress of hair, which he wore hanging doubled up behind, and concealed under his jacket; and he kept a suit of Chinese clothes always by him, to put on when he arrived, lest he might not be able to get them from the shore, and thus be detected.

COLOURED LADIES.

Among the passengers in the ladies' cabin, were three Coloured females, going from Mobile to Montgomery, whose position was very remarkable. They were not Negresses, but Mulattoes, of dark brown colour, and strongly-marked African features, and appeared to be sisters or relatives. They were each dressed much more expensively than either of the White ladies on board; silks, lace, and feathers, with ornaments of jewellery of various kinds, being worn by them. They slept on the cabin-floor, as the Coloured servants usually do, no berth or bed-place being assigned them ; and they occupied a good hour at their toilette, with the White stewardess, before the ladies were moving. They remained sitting in the cabin all day, as if they were on a footing of per- fect equality with the White passengers; but when meal-time came, then was seen the difference.

The order in which the meals were taken in the steam-vessel was this : at the first bell, the captain and all the White passengers sat down; when these had all finished and left the table, a second bell summoned the pilot, the captain's clerk, all the White men of the engineer's department, the White stewardess, and such White servants or subordinates as might be on board; and when these had finished, the third bell summoned the Black steward and all the Mulattoes and Coloured servants to take their meal. So equivocal, however, was the position of these Coloured ladies, that they could not be placed at either of the tables; they were not high enough in rank to be seated with the Whites, and they were too high to be seated with the Blacks and Mulattoes; so they had to retire to the pantry, where they took their meals standing; and the contrast of their finery in dress and ornament with the place in which they took their isolated and separate meal was painfully striking.. What rendered it more so, to me at least, was this, that however a man might yearn to break down these barriers which custom and prejudice has raised against a certain race, the ex- hibition of any such feeling, or the utterance of any such sentiment, would undoubtedly injure the very parties for whom his sympathy might be excited, or on whose behalf it might be expressed.

THE LAST CLERK, (CHARLESTON.)

In this church was the only instance we had yet met with in the United States of a clerk assisting in the service, by reading the responses and giving out the psalms. He did not, however, sit beneath the clergyman in a desk, as with us, nor did he wear a gown ; but he occupied a corner pew at the end of the aisle nearest the pulpit, and rose from thence to give out the words to be sung. The nasal tone and broad pronunciation in which he did this was so perfectly clerk-like, that I thought he must have been imported direct from England, or else that his office must have been hereditary. I learnt, on subsequent in- quiry, that in Colonial times every church had its clerk, and that this practice continued for some time after the Revolution. But the demand for labour of every kind caused it to be difficult to procure clerks, except at such salaries as would be deemed too high, and they have gradually been discontinued ; this at St. Philip's Church being apparently the last of his race ; so that at his death the species will perhaps become entirely extinct, like the mammoth of his own continent.

FREE AND EASY IN TENNESSEE.

We returned to Mr. Deery's to pass the evening; in the course of which the eldest daughter played and sang very agreeably, accompanying herself on an excellent pianoforte of Clementi's make, which her father had imported from London expressly for her use. This brought a crowd of the farmers, who were still in town, round the windows ; others entered the hall or passage ; and some came into the drawing-room and seated themselves, with their hats on, to enjoy the music. As these retired, others took their places; and one young man brought in his sister and his intended wife, and said, as he placed them in chairs, "These ladies if you please are come to have a little music." Some of the visiters were known to Mr. beery only as his customers, but others were not known to him at all. This, however, created no embarrassment on either side : the visiters evidently thought they were doing nothing wrong in walking in unasked and soliciting "a tune "; and the family, aware that such unsolicited visits are very common among the country-people, took no offence, because none was intended ; so that all passed off quietly : but I never remember to have seen rustic simplicity more complete than here.

SOUTHERN MANNERS AND MORALS.

Our fellow-passengers were chiefly Virginians and Carolinians, with only one young female among the number. The whole of the men smoked and chewed tobacco, and expressed their astonishment to learn that in England and France the great majority of the community did neither. We heard from them such pictures of the prevailing immorality and dishonesty of the mercan- tile classes, as, if told of them by any foreigner, would have roused their indig- nation; and such confessions of the recklessness and blood thirstiness of the White inhabitants of the South and West, as we are hardly prepared to hear thus openly avowed. Many individuals were named by them as living in a style of great luxury and expense, who had failed three or four times over, main- taining themselves by defrauding others; and who yet, because they were be- lieved to be wealthy, not only retained their station in society without reproach, but were even courted and sought after by those living in their neighbourhood. Other individuals were also named, as known by them to have killed more than one friend in a duel or an affray, and who had not on that account lost the slightest consideration in general society, but, in their opinion, were thought rather better of for these "manifestations of manly spirit."

The following extract contradicts the previous passage, and many others of similar tendency ; for which discrepancy we do not pre- tend to account.

HONESTY IN THE SOUTH.

During our passage, we halted several times at fixed stations to take in a sup- ply of wood, as this is the only fuel used for the steam-engines. There was rarely any person at these stations in charge of the wood, or to superintend its delivery, labour being too dear to be so appropriated; but there is placed on a pole a small box, into which the person who takes the supply of wood be re- quires is requested to deposit an order for the payment on Augusta or Savan- nah, relying on his honesty to enter the exact quantity be takes away. Once a week these orders are collected by a clerk, who visits the station and takes out the papers deposited in the box. The price of such wood, hewn into pieces of a convenient size and piled up in cords, is three dollars per cord ; and the boats that ply on the river being well known, there is rarely or ever any diffi- culty about the supplies or payment.

SOCIETY IN THE SOUTH.

Like the society of Charleston, this of Savannah is characterized by great ele- gance in all their deportment ; the men are perfect gentlemen in their man- ners, and the women are accomplished ladies. A high sense of honour, and a freedom from all the little meannesses and tricks of trade, seem to prevail uni- versally among the gentlemen ; who are liberal, frank, and hospitable, without ostentation, or much pretence ; while the ladies are not only well-educated, but elegant in their manners, and mingle with the pleasures of the social circle much of grace and dignity, blended with the greatest kindness and sanvity.

The principal causes of this difference from the coldness, formality, and re- serve of the North, is no doubt partly to be attributed to climate, partly to the different style of living, and a great deal to the circumstance, that as all persons of moderate fortunes live -here upon a footing of equality with the wealthiest, there is not that straining after distinction, and the practice of va- rious arts to obtain it, which prevail in cities where the aristocracy is composed of three or four grades or castes, each anxious to outrival and overtop the other ; which begets uneasiness, jealousy, suspicion, and an extraordinary de- gree of fastidiousness as to the acquaintances formed, the parties visited, and the guests entertained. The graceful ease and quiet elegance of the Southern families make their visiters feel that they are in the society of well-bred and recognized gentlemen and ladies; while in the North, the doubt and ambiguity as to relative rank and position, and the overstrained efforts to be thought gen- teel, make the stranger feel that he is in the presence of persons new to the sphere of polished society, and labouring under an excessive anxiety about the opinion of others, which makes them a burden to themselves.