202 TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION 



capital in negroes and, in the strict sense, are by them 

 supported, living careless on the bitter sweat of the 

 hired. 



There is besides a poor-tax which last year was 

 fixed at 12 shillings in the pound of land-tax and 

 negro-tax. That is, whoever pays land-tax and negro- 

 tax to the amount of 5 Pd. sterling, must pay five 

 times 12 shillings, or 3 Pd. additional, to the poor- 

 fund ; and a ' Batchelor's Tax,' or tax on unmarried 

 men more than 25 years old, was at the time about to 

 be imposed. 



The laws of Carolina are mild, indulgent, equitable. 

 But this holds of all the other North American states ; 

 everywhere the laws are apparently draughted by and 

 for none but upright citizens, and hence are often used 

 to good advantage by those whose designs are evil. 

 In order to effect a more rapid settlement of the state 

 and to hinder beginning planters as little as possible, 

 very easy debt laws were enacted. But these advan- 

 tages are enjoyed as well by persistent, malicious 

 debtors. A debtor in Carolina, so far from standing 

 in awe of his creditor, threatens him with the law 

 which, after suit is brought, allows the debtor a stay 

 first of 3, and then of 6 months. Thus a debtor who 

 puts off his creditor for years with stipulations, fine 

 speeches, and vain pretences, lets the creditor under- 

 stand, if he has resort to the law, that the law pro- 

 tects him and he means to withhold payment many 

 months, and then perhaps he may be able to make new 

 conditions. So it happens that credit is very dear. 

 Lands are offered for sale at 5-10-15 years' credit, 

 and fetch 3-4 and 5 times as much as if sold for cash 

 money (the scarcity of which is another cause of the 



