20 NEGROES IN UPPER COUNTRY. [CHAP. XX 



keep the races asunder would rapidly diminish, were they no1 

 studiously kept up by artificial barriers, unjust laws, and the re 

 action against foreign interference. In one of the small farms, 

 where I passed the night, I was struck with the good manners 

 and pleasant expression of countenance of a young woman of 

 color, who had no dash of white blood in her veins. She man 

 aged nearly all the domestic affairs of the house, the white chil 

 dren among the rest, and, when next day I learnt her age, from 

 the proprietor, I expressed surprise that she had never married. 

 &quot; She has had many offers,&quot; said he, &quot; but has declined all, for 

 they were quite unworthy of her, rude and uncultivated coun 

 try people. I do not see how she is to make a suitable match 

 here, though she might easily do so in a large town like Savan 

 nah.&quot; He spoke of her just as he might have done of a white 

 free maid-servant. 



If inter-marriages between the colored and white races were 

 not illegal here, how can we doubt that as Englishwomen some 

 times marry black servants in Great Britain, others, who came 

 out here as poor emigrants, would gladly accept an offer from a 

 well-conducted black artisan or steward of an estate, a man of 

 intelligence and sober habits, preferable in so many respects to 

 the drunken and illiterate Irish settlers, who are now so unduly 

 raised above them by the prejudices of race ! 



In one family, I found that there were six white children and 

 six blacks, of about the same age, and the negroes had been taught 

 to read by their companions, the owner winking at this illegal 

 proceeding, and seeming to think that such an acquisition would 

 rather enhance the value of his slaves than otherwise. Unfor 

 tunately, the whites, in return, often learn from the negroes to 

 speak broken English, and, in spite of losing much time in un 

 learning ungrammatical phrases, well-educated people retain some 

 of them all their lives. 



As I stopped every evening at the point where my geological 

 work for the day happened to end, I had sometimes to put up 

 with rough quarters in the pine-barrens. It was cold, and none 

 of my hosts grudged a good fire, for large logs of blazing pine- 

 wood were freely heaped up on the hearth, but the windows and 

 doors were kept wide open. One morning, I was at breakfast 



