SOUTHERN STATES. 



traveler will often find it set before Jiim three times a day. In Virginia, it is, at dinner, a 

 standing dish, accompanied by greens. In Louisiana, gumbo., a compound soup, is much used, 

 and at New Orleans, it is sold in the streets. 



Whisky is more used than any other intoxicating liquor, and there is much of it consumed. 

 The poorer class of the whites are less temperate than the same grade in New England and 

 the Middle States. Peach brandy, and apple brandy are common, and in many parts, cider, 

 beer, and porter ; imported spirits are used in the cities, and the rich bestow much care and 

 expense upon their wines, which are chiefly sherry and madeira, except in Louisiana, where 

 claret is more used. In the Southern States, where the ague is so common and troublesome 

 a malady, where fogs are frequent, and dews heavy, it has grown into a custom to fortify the 

 body from the attacks of the disease, by means of juleps, or what are called antifogmatics. A 

 fogmatic, is a dram of any ardent spirit ; but the julep is made by breaking into the raw liquor 

 a sprig of tansey, or several kinds of mint. In the cities, the custom is, perhaps, "more 

 honored in the breach, than the observance ; " but in the country, under certain local modifi- 

 cations, it is a general and daily practice to indulge in these drams. At the hotels of New 

 York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, mint juleps, which were first introduced from the South and 

 West, are now regularly furnished to all who call for them. They consist of spirits, sugar, and 

 mint, with small pieces of ice. They are mixed by being poured rapidly, and for a consider- 

 able time, from one tumbler to another. 



16. Diseases. The most general diseases, are the bilious and intermittent fevers. They 

 are the scourge of all the low countries, from the Potomac which flows into the Atlantic, to 

 the Sabine which enters the Gulf of Mexico. From many districts, all the white inhabitants 

 who have the means, remove at the approach of summer, and return not till after a frost. 

 Those who remain, are sallow, slender, and feeble. The yellow fever is a desolating pesti- 

 lence at New Orleans, but it is seldom very destructive in other cities. The negroes are not 

 sickly in summer, except on the rice plantations, where they work much in the water ; but in 

 winter many of them die of pulmonary complaints. 



17. Traveling. Persons who travel in the Southern States, go chiefly for business o 

 health, for few would travel for pleasure. The three great requisites for agreeable traveling 

 are wanting; — good roads^ good vehicles, and good inns. The roads are often alternations 

 of sand and swamp ; and in a swamp, where a good road could not be made but at vast ex- 

 pense, trunks of trees are laid across, over which the vehicle bounces without ceasing. These 

 are called corduroy roads, and they are often under water. The public vehicles are not often 

 easy or comfortable, and the better way of traveling is on horseback. 



The inns are of very humble pretensions, and slender accommodations. In several States, 

 the charges are regulated by law. The country is thinly inhabited, and the traveler seldom 

 fares better than upon the usual food of the common people ; and this, in its best form, is ba- 

 con, eggs, hominy, and yams. In many districts, inhabited by wealthy planters, the hospitality 

 is such that there is little need of inns. Any decent traveller is received, and generally, as if 

 he were conferring upon his host a favor. In districts less wealthy, almost every house re- 

 ceives the traveler, at a moderate compensation. An Englishman, (and not the most gracious 

 even among his class,) who has passed over the Southern States, and partly by an unfrequented 

 route, writes thus, — "hospitality we were sure to meet with in every corner, no matter how 

 remote." On the rivers there are steamboats, and the South has many noble streams, but 

 these are generally too low in summer. The charges in them and in stagecoaches, are highei 

 than in the other sections ; but generally the boats are less commodious, as they carry mer 

 chandlse and produce, as well as passengers. 



18. Character, Manners, ^c. In the southern section there are some traits that run 

 through all the States, though these are somewhat modified by various causes. The most ob- 

 vious and general modification of character, is that which is made by the system of domestic 

 slavery. AH intercourse between unequal parties must have, to say the least, authority on the 

 one side, and submission on the other. These are correlative ; and if the authority should be 

 carried to despotism, the submission must end in an entire surrender of will, and prostration of 

 conscience. The soul will sink to its condition : and to be a slave, is not only to toil without 

 reward, but to deceive, to lie, and to steal without shame. 



But the more odious characteristics of a state of slavery are not often found in the South- 

 ern States ; for the system has there almost every mitigation that is consistent with secu- 

 rity. The slaves are, for the most part, contented and cheerful ; theii greatest evils are 



