CHAP. XX.] NEGROES IN UPPER COUNTRY. 19 



where covered with wood, following chiefly the swampy valley 

 of the Ogeechee River, in such a manner as to miss seeing all 

 the leading features in the physical geography of the country. 

 Had I not, when at Hopeton, seen good examples of that suc 

 cession of steps, or abrupt escarpments, by which a traveler in 

 passing from the sea-coast to the granite region ascends from one 

 great terrace to another, I should have doubted the accuracy of 

 Bartram s description.* 



I had many opportunities, during this excursion, of satisfying 

 myself of the fact for which I had been prepared by the plant 

 ers &quot; on the sea-board,&quot; that the intelligence of the colored race 

 increased in the interior and upland country in proportion as 

 they have more intercourse with the whites. Many of them 

 were very inquisitive to know my opinion as to the manner in 

 which marine shells, sharks teeth, sea-urchins, and corals could 

 have been buried in the earth so far from the sea and at such a 

 height. The deluge had occurred to them as a cause, but they 

 were not satisfied with it, observing that they procured these 

 remains not merely near the surface, but from the bottom of 

 deep wells, and that others were in flint stones. In some 

 places, when I left the railway and hired a gig to visit planta 

 tions far from the main road, the proprietor would tell me he 

 was unable to answer my questions, his well having been sunk 

 ten or twelve years ago. In that period the property had 

 changed hands two or three times, the former owners having 

 settled farther south or southwest ; but the estate had remained 

 under the management of the same head negro, to whom I was 

 accordingly referred. This personage, conscious of his import 

 ance, would begin by enlarging, with much self-complacency, on 

 the ignorance of his master, who had been too short a time in 

 those parts to understand any thing I wished to know. When 

 at length he condescended to come to the point, he could usually 

 give me a clear account of the layers of sand, clay, and limestone 

 they had passed through, and of fishes teeth they had found, 

 some of which had occasionally been preserved. In proportion 

 as these colored people fill places of trust, they are involuntarily 

 treated more as equals by the whites. The prejudices which 

 # Ante, vol. i. p. 257. 



