40 THE " POOR AVHITES " OF THE SOUTH. 



in the fields, and the whip was always in reserve in case of need. 

 Thus Emancipation has borne heavily on the wives of the old aris- 

 tocracy, and (not being politicians) they do not even affect to 

 welcome the change. Many of the wisest and most resoliite among 

 them have learned to do their own work, with their daughters' help ; 

 some have obtained White help, mainly of foreign birth ; others are 

 doing with hired Black servants, but most of these get on badly. 

 Thus the female aristocracy of the South are still averse to the 

 great change they have witnessed ; and years must pass before they 

 can be reconciled to it. 



I learn with great satisfaction that there is a decided improve- 

 ment manifest among the "poor Whites." These formed, under 

 Slavery, the most hopeless class in the South. Courted by the aris- 

 tocracy for their votes, flattered with their rank as members of the 

 dominant caste, allowed to build their shanties on the outskirts of 

 the great plantations, and to breed and train, dogs to hunt runaway 

 slaves in the swamps and denser forests, they grew up unlettered 

 and irreligious, hunted and fished half their time, grew a patch of 

 corn on suflerance, had a pig running in the woods, and lived a 

 thriftless, aimless, worthless life. They were far more fanatical in 

 their devotion to Slavery than the slaveholders, who seldom defiled 

 their hands with the mobbing of an Abolitionist, since the " poor 

 Whites " were too ready to take the job off" their hands. For some 

 time after the collapse of the Rebellion, these spent most of their 

 time idling at the cross-roads store or some convenient grog-shop, 



cursing the Yankees and wondering " why the d niggers do n't 



go to work ; " but of late a change is apparent. Certainly, there 

 are idle, trifling "poor Whites" still, as there are equally worthless 

 Blacks ; but they are fewer than they htive been, and growing fewer 

 day by day. They do not work so resolvitely, so persistently, as do 

 their counterparts at the North ; but work is no longer disreputa- 

 ble, and many who did not average a fair day's work per week 

 under Slavery do three or four days' work per week under Fi-eedom. 

 The " corn-crackers," " sand-hill ers," " clay-eaters," &c., of the last 

 generation, will be unknown as a class after this century. 



That those who struggled and fought for Secession generally 

 believe they were right in so doing, I cannot doubt. Jefferson 

 Davis's late speeches fairly express their average convictions and 

 feelings. But, while they still aflSrm the right of Secession, I am 

 satisfied that a majority of them believe its pi-actical assertion was 



