liZl; 3 l^lcai-l t-I U il , CtAlVl. J. V^tifc ^ 1 I ' C^ , IL/t-lC M^&V| *** V^CIJ. VSJIXICI; (Ml 



1 comparatively idle. The whites, generally speaking, 

 litable to work, and the slaves work as little as they 



1830.] United States of America, and British West Indies. 527 



which the horses splashed and floundered along as well as they might, 

 drawing the carriage after them, in spite of holes into which the fore- 

 wheels were dipped almost to the axletrees, making every part of the 

 vehicle creak again. These sounds were echoed back with a melancholy 

 tone from the desolate blank on both hands, mingled with the croaking 

 of millions of frogs, whose clear sharp note, however, gave some relaxa- 

 tion to the ear from the gloomy silence of this most dreary of forests." 

 He was ferried across the Chowan river by slaves, who stuck several 

 torches, made of the pitch pine-tree, into the sides of the scow, or flat. 

 " This blaze of light immediately about us made the solitude and silence 

 of the forest in our rear even more impressive than it had appeared when 

 we ourselves were almost lost in the gloom." 



Subsequently he passed through many cotton plantations, and some 

 tobacco fields ; but the chief cultivation was that of Indian corn. " In the 

 more northern parts, we had been very much struck with the air of bustle, 

 and all sorts of industry, men riding about, chopping down forests, building 

 up houses, ploughing, planting, and reaping ; but here, in Carolina, all 

 mankind appeared 

 consider it discreditable 

 can." 



He found a great many Scotch Highlanders settled in the country 

 round Fayetteville, retaining almost exclusively their native language. 

 Conversing with a gentleman at the little town of Camden, on the subject 

 of slavery, he complained much of the slaves. " Suppose," said he, " I 

 have a slave who is a drunkard and a thief, and really almost the whole 

 race are dissipated and dishonest ; how can I get rid of him ? I cannot 

 sell him, for nobody will be his purchaser ; the laws won't allow me to 

 turn him about his business. I am obliged, therefore, to feed, clothe, 

 and take care of this rogue, while, all the time, I get no service out of 

 him, and know him to be a scamp of the first order I" 



One of the miseries which must be endured by the slaves in the United 

 States, from which our slaves in the West India islands are exempt, is, 

 their liability to be moved hundreds or perhaps thousands of miles, at 

 the will of their masters, for the purpose of clearing grounds in the 

 southernmost states, for sugar plantations ; a speculation which, from a 

 spirit of rivalry, and otherwise, has, since the intercourse with our West 

 India colonies was broken oif, been much encouraged by the government 

 of the United States. This circumstance not only gives rise to an im- 

 mense inland traffic in slaves, creating much misery to the negroes, but 

 also retards, for evident reasons, that progressive civilization which is so 

 rapidly going forward in our own colonies. During the drive from 

 Camden to Columbia, the seat of government of South Carolina, Captain 

 Hall " overtook several bodies of migrants," if there be such a word 

 farmers-errant, proceeding with all their worldly goods, from Virginia 

 and Maryland, to Florida, Georgia, and Alabama. 



" The first party consisted of a planter and his wife, accompanied by 

 his brother-in-law, and family, a whole troop of their children, and some 

 forty or fifty slaves of all ages and sizes." 



" We had drawn up just abreast of a group of slaves, consisting of 



two or three women, with six or eight little children playing about them, 



none of whom were much encumbered with clothing." Captain Hall's 



little girl, delighted with the novelty, distributed her sponge-cake among 



^the shining little blackies, to the unspeakable satisfaction of the mothers, 



