642 Notes on America. [JUNE, 



the British governors of South Carolina, and prospered under their sway. 

 Since then its glory has in great measure departed. The indigo and 

 tobacco trades have been ruined. There is still a large decayed building 

 in King-street, called the tobacco warehouse, which proves the extent to 

 which that branch of commerce was formerly carried. At present cotton 

 and rice are the staple articles of trade, which is principally in the hands 

 of merchants from the north, who pass the winter or business season 

 only in Charleston, and return in the summer to expend the fruits of their 

 industry 700 or 800 miles from the place where they were acquired. An 

 Englishman would probably consider two or three such journeys in the 

 course of the year, a matter of some moment, but an American measures 

 distances with a different scale, and to him, a journey by land or water 

 from New York or Boston to Savannah or Charleston, is a mere baga- 

 telle. Thus Charleston gains but little from the commerce which is 

 carried on within its walls. The late prohibitory, or what were meant to 

 be prohibitory, duties on British goods, press heavily upon it, by causing 

 a reduction in the prices of cotton and rice, and an advance on the articles 

 for which those products must be exchanged. If the last tariff be per- 

 sisted in, and submitted to, it is evident that the southern states will be 

 sacrificed to the northern. But symptoms of a sturdy resistance have 

 lately manifested themselves, and it is to be hoped that a system, ruinous 

 to many, and eventually profitable to none, will soon be abandoned. 



There was formerly a considerable trade in slaves carried on from 

 Charleston, most however by foreigners. But since this horrid traffic 

 has been legally prohibited, I am not aware of any attempt having been 

 made to continue it. It was a common saying in Charleston, that " the 

 curse of God stuck to all slave-traders and their children/' who never 

 prospered finally. There seemed to be one, and 1 was told only one, ex- 

 ception to this rule, in the person of a very benevolent gentleman, the son 

 of a slave trader. But during my residence in South Carolina, this 

 exception ceased to exist ; for the person alluded to failed in business, 

 and " the curse" at last fell upon him. 



The slaves in Charleston are, outwardly, the same happy and reckless 

 set of beings as elsewhere. They are, for the most part, very kindly 

 treated. Indeed, during a residence of two years among them, I never 

 saw one maltreated or whipped. I am aware, of course, that this is far 

 from proving that cruelty is never practised, but it shows at least that it 

 is not common. However, as it may naturally be expected, these unfor- 

 tunate beings, knowing that they have no property in themselves, show 

 but little respect for the property of others j plots and insurrections are 

 frequent, and during the winters of 1825 and 1827, we were con- 

 tinually alarmed by their attempts to set fire to the city. Some of these, 

 unfortunately, succeeded too well, and a large amount of property was 

 destroyed, especially in King-street, which is long, narrow, and com- 

 bustible. Half of the militia force of the city, in which all able bodied 

 whites are enrolled without distinction of rank or nation, is always on fire 

 duty, or liable to be called out for the protection of the inhabitants and 

 their property against the negroes, in case of a fire ; I was up between 

 twenty and thirty nights during the winter on this business. The blacks 

 were compelled to draw the engines and extinguish the fire they had 

 kindled, while many a fierce denunciation of punishment and revenge fell 

 from the lips of their incensed masters. The fire in King-street above 



