SOUTHERN STATES 



287 



manity or interest of the masters. On some plantations, there are premiums and prizes allowed 

 to the slaves for good conduct, and no one is punished till after conviction by a jury of his 

 equals. General instruction is prohibited, as ignorance is supposed to redound more to the 

 security of the institution. The slaves may, indeed, attend the usual places of public worship, 

 but these are fevi^. A slave is tried for a capital ofience by two justices, and from two to five 

 freeholders ; and more offences are capital in him than in a white. It is punishable with death for 

 a slave to attempt to commit murder, burglary, robbery, &c., or to attempt to burn a house, or 

 out-buildings connected with a house. The murder of a slave by a white, is in every State 

 punishable with death. 



19. Amusements. These are generally the same as in the other sections ; though there is 

 more gambhng. The field sports are on a greater scale, from the abundance of game. Many 

 of the gentlemen keep packs of hounds, and parties hunt foxes, and chase the deer, very much 

 after the fashion of England. In Louisiana and the adjacent States, a peculiar method of kill- 

 ing deer, called fire-hunting, is common. 

 Two persons go at night, one carrying a 

 rifle, and the other a torch, or brand of fire, 

 or sometimes a pan of coals, upon which a 

 blaze is kindled. They seek the places 

 which the deer are known to frequent, and 

 as these animals will not fly, but stand be- 

 wildered and gazing at the fire, the hunts- 

 man shoots one of them down as soon as he 

 can see its eye glistening through the dark- 

 ness. Accidents sometimes happen in this 

 method of sporting, as a neighbor's horse 

 or cow is sometimes found to have received 

 the rifle-ball, instead of the imagined deer. 

 Among the amusements, horse-racing is the 

 most general ; the races are held in almost 

 every county, and m perhaps every capital 

 They are well attended, and often attract a 

 great concourse of ladies as well as gentle- 

 men. The breed of horses is, of course, a subject of interest, and it is in general excellent. 

 In Virginia, the horses are of the Arabian stock, and in no other climate (except the original 

 one of the race) do these animals retain their characteristics so well. 



The barbacue is a kind of feast peculiar to the Southern and Western States. It is a feast 

 held in the country, sometimes for mere festivity, and sometimes for political purposes. Hogs, 

 deer, and wild turkeys, are roasted or barbacued by being placed on sticks before a fire. The 

 following description of a scene of this kind, is from the New England Magazine. "Now fancy 

 yourself i-iding 'along and along ' through the greenwood, till you would like to live, like 

 Jaques, 'under the shade of melancholy boughs,' afar from the habitations of men ; you come 

 at once upon a multitude of rich equipages, with beautiful horses unharnessed and tied to trees. 

 Advancing, you hear shouts, merriment, and ' tweedle dum and tweedle dee.' Music and 

 dancing are near, and if there are no nymphs and dryads, pass on, and you see, glancing around, 

 groups or constellations of ladies, such as you will see only in Virginia or Spain. These are 

 attended by the satellites that usually follow in the train of beauty. You discover a large circu- 

 lar space covered with canvass or boughs, where the light of heart and foot are dancing to the 

 violin and fife, while under trees at a distance arc the more sedate and grave in years, sitting at 

 tables by fours, and looking intently on little parallelograms of pasteboard, which, ever and 

 anon, they rap down with force upon the board. You will not fail to see a range of tables that 



Fire-kuntinir. 



tion for a negro girl Sally, she purchased her with this 

 money, which she had been years in accumulating, and 

 gave her her freedom. For a considerable time, tlie de- 

 fendant never claimed any property in the girl, never paid 

 taxes for her, but acltnowledged that he had nn property 

 in her. When called upon to deliver up the girl, as free, 

 he refused ; and, in consequence, this action was brought. 

 The court charged the jury in favor of the plaintiff ; Chief 

 Justice Rutledge saying, in conclusion, ' If the girl chose 



to appropriate the savings of her extra labor to the pur- 

 chase of this girl, in order afterwards to set her free, would 

 a jury of the country say no I — he trusted not. They 

 were too humane and upright, he hoped, to do such mani- 

 fest violence to so singular and extraordinary an act of 

 benevolence.' The jury, without retiring from the box, 

 gave a verdict for the plaintifT a ward and she was set at 

 liberty." — South Carolina Reports 



