280 



SOUTHERN STATES. 



turtle-crawl is considered an essential appen 

 dage to a house, as much so as a barn to a 

 northern farmer. The crawl is a pen, made 

 where the water is about 2 feet deep at low 

 tide, by driving mangrove poles into the 

 ground ; the tide flows freely about the turtles, 

 and they are fed with purslain or sea-grass. 



1 1 . Inhabitants^ Races, Classes, ^c. The 

 population is mixed, though it is principally 

 of English descent. There are, however, not 

 only descendants of the French, Spanish, 

 Germans, &c., but separate settlements of 

 the original foreigners. There are inhabitants 

 also, of every European people who ever mi- 

 grate to America. The negroes not only form 

 a considerable portion of the ])opu]ation, but 

 a separate class ; for the most of them are 

 held in slavery. They are principally natives of the country, though there are many imported 

 Africans. The Indians are a few Nottaways and Catawbas, in Virginia and South Carolina ; 

 some Chickasaws in Mississippi and Alabama ; the Seminoles and others, in Florida ; and 

 various small tribes, chiefly the Appalachies, Alabamas, Pascagculas, &c. in Louisiana. 



12. Dress. The modes of dress are generally the same that prevail in the other sections, 

 though at the South, the materials are lighter, and the hats of broader brim. 



13. Language. The English is not the universal language ; German, French, and Spanish 

 are used in several settlements ; and in Louisiana, the laws and newspapers are printed in both 

 English and French. 



14. jMode of Building. The manner of building is less substantial than in the Middle or 

 Northern States. Few country houses are of brick, and the low country is without stones. 

 What was said by .Tefl^erson, of Virginia, may have a wider application, — "that the genius 

 of architecture seems to have shed its malediction over the land." In Virginia the public 

 buildings are chiefly churches, and court-houses ; but they are without pretensions to elegance. 

 The old churches, built under the colonial government, of imported bricks, are generally ne- 

 glected and dilapidated. Throughout the Southern States, the houses of the planters have 

 much uniformity. They are of one or two stories, and have a veranda in front, and chimneys 

 at the end, on the outside. The kitchen, and other offices are in separate buildings, in the 

 rear. The negro houses have chimneys, and two rooms, and the poorest of them are better 

 than the cabins in Ireland, or the Highlands of Scotland. There are also, in some parts, many 

 log-houses, which are common with both whites and blacks. There are numbers of country 

 houses, capacious, and in good taste, but the most of them are without elegance. In passing 

 rapidly in a steamboat, the buildings on a plantation have the appearance of a village. They 

 are often whitewashed or painted. In front is the proprietor's house ; on either side, and in 

 the rear, are the hospital, the carriage house, the kitchen, and the store houses, and in the 

 rear, a double line of negro dwellings. 



Captain Hall had, at Columbus, in Georgia, an opportunity of seeing the architectual em- 

 bryo of a village in the woods, where the inhabitants had collected before the lots were sold 

 for the buildmgs, and where but few dwellings were actually raised. The houses were, some 

 of them, on low wheels, to be the more easily removed. Sixty frames, built by carpenters, 

 on speculation, were lying on the ground, ready to be put up as soon as the sale of the land 

 was completed. Stagecoaches, wagons, carts, and gigs were there in numbers, and many 

 people who came in them, were encamped in the forest. Nine hundred were there, and by 

 the day of sale, several thousand. 



15. Food and Drinks. There is a considerable difference between the food in the South 

 ern States, and that in the Northern. In the former, there are few of the garden vegetables, 

 and the Irish potatoe is not generally raised. Rice is much used, chiefly boiled, and it is often 

 eaten as bread. Hominy is a preparation of Indian corn, which is coarsely broken, and boiled ; 

 it IS found at all tables. Yams, or sweet potatoes, tomatos, and okra, are favorite vegetables. 

 Hoe-cake, which is the johnny-cake of New England, and ash-pone, a coarse cake, baked 

 under the ashes, are in common use, as bread. Ham is a general article of fond, and the 



