has an old military frock, and by his side may be a female in a man's hat of fur, with a sailor's jacket over a gown of gaudy colors. The children in summer wear little clothing, but a shirt, and many are divested even of that.

On every plantation there is a nurse; and the overseer, who must be a white, has, in the absence of the owner, a chest of medicines. The alleviations are small. The slaves have three days at Christmas, with meat, pipes, tobacco and rum enough for festivity. They have Sundays, new year's day, and a day for harvest. They may, and often do, gain a day by doing the task of three days in two, and every woman who has seven children, has Saturday to wash and mend for them. She who has five children, has every third Saturday. The tasks are rarely severe, except in ginning the cotton, or separating it from the seed, and at the harvest on rice lands. In summer and spring the negroes often leave the fields at three and four o'clock, and in winter at one o'clock; though in some places it is much later.

norance.

The negroes commonly bury the dead in a tumultuous manner, and rum, tobacco, candles and bacon, are consolations to the survivors seldom offered in vain. They are happy if they can secure a piece of white cloth, wherein to bury the deceased. The funerals are at night. Their original superstitions are few, though they adopt readily those of the whites. Their minds are too dark even for superstition, that invariable companion of common igMany of them believe that the soul is even in life separable from the body; that when a man sleeps, the spirit has left his fleshly case for a season, as it leaves it forever when he dies, or the soul goes on its long journey to what is called 'Shut-eye-town.' The spirit they conceive has the privilege of returning to the earth on missions either wicked,' or 'charitable. The ghost, however, is, it is thought, obliged to avert the head from the direction in which it advances; or to look one way, and move another. They believe that crows and owls give omens of death, and that the domestic animals, but principally cows, when they emit low and melancholy sounds, perform the same Banshee office. They have no obi-men, though they fear an evil prediction, which they call 'putting a bad mouth' upon a person. They will never use in any way the wood of a tree that has been struck with lightning. It is not strange that they should believe heaven to be entirely different from what they experience of earth, and they have no other conception of it than as a place where they shall rest from their labors. They sometimes speak of their lost children as still theirs. If asked how many children she has, a mother who has lost three, and has still seven, will say ten.

Their marriages are mere civil contracts, and are too often of little force. In towns many have their children christened. On the plantations, the preacher is generally some respectable and fluent person, who harangues wildly, and who seldom connects his religious views with morality. Their amusements are few, and chiefly dancing. Many of them know so much of music, that they can play a few tunes on the violin, and they dance with much vigor.

They are aristocratic, and feel towards a good master as the Highlanders to their chief. They despise poor white peopie, and often give them food with an air of patronage. They attach importance to being born on the estate, and are mortified if they are sold for a small sum. In the upper country, and with the small proprietors, the slaves live nearly on terms of equality with their masters. They prefer to have their children named by their owners, and it is a custom to give renowned Roman names. Cæsar, Pompey, and Cato, are found on all plantations. There are also several negroes with the same name, distinguished by some addition,-as Long Tom, Short Tom, Big Tom, Lame Tom, Diana's Tom, &c.

The laws which operate on the slaves must necessarily be peculiar, though

many of them are severe beyond all necessity. It is to be recollected, however, that they have grown up from the commencement of the institution, and that from changes in circumstances, many of them have no longer an application, and many others are not enforced. The more severe parts of the code are not of recent enactment. A traveller, or even a resident in the southern states, would not discover the existence of the severer part of these acts, without reference to the statute book. Captain Hall, who has traversed this section, and who, in America, at least, was sagacious in discovering defects, acknowledges that the slavery has all consistent mitigations, that the slaves are humanely treated, and not overtasked, or underfed. This has, of course, much weight, as being the testimony of a competent, but reluctant witness.

Of these laws, we must speak generally, though there are many individual differences in various states. The slavery is by these laws made hereditary, and the servitude of the mother determines that of the child. Some few of the slaves are little darker than the whites; and when such claim their freedom, their color, in some states, throws the burden of proof upon the other side; but in the case of those evidently of African descent, the color is held to be a sufficient indication of bondage, till the negro furnishes testimony of his freedom.

The slaves are in every state but Louisiana, chattels personal, and may be sold to pay the debts or bequests of the master. In some states, certain separations in their families are forbidden; though, generally, the wife may be separated from the husband, and the child from both.

The slave can make no contracts, nor can he legally hold any property. He can commence no suit, nor can a free negro, without the intervention of a special guardian. The testimony of a negro, bound or free, is not admitted in a civil or criminal suit against a white. There are in all the states restraints upon manumission; as a population of free blacks is felt to be dangerous to the subordination of the others.

In all the states, negroes travelling without a pass are liable to be seized, advertised, and sold. In Mississippi, the jailer shall interrogate the prisoners and write by mail to the person by them described as masters; if the account be false, he shall give each prisoner 25 lashes, well laid on,' and 'interrogate them anew, and so on; and for the space of six months it shall be his duty, alternately to interrogate, and whip, as aforesaid.' The general punishment for minor offences, is whipping, which may be inflicted by any owner or overseer. There are various laws, indeed, to restrain cruel punishments, or tasks, and to prescribe a sufficient allowance of food and clothing, but these cannot be generally enforced for the want of evidence.'

The best security of the slaves, is in the force of custom, public opinion,*

*The following report will show that the spirit and letter of the law is sometimes relaxed.

'The Guardian of Sally, a negro, vs. Beattie. This was a special action to establish the freedom of a negro girl -a negro slave, the property of the defendant, by working out, in town, by the permission of her master, had by her industry acquired a considerable sum of money over and above monthly wages to her master; and having an affection 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 the defendant never claimed any property in the girl, never paid taxes for her, but acknowledged that he had no 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 purchase of this girl, in order afterwards to set her free, would a jury of the country say no!-he trusted not. They were too humane and upright, he hoped, to do such manifest violence, to so singular and extraordinary an act of benevolence." The jury, without retiring from the box, gave a verdict for the plaintiff's ward, and she was set at liberty.'-S. Carolina Reports.

and in the humanity, or interest of the masters. On some plantations, and even in Louisiana, 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 few.

A slave is tried for a capital offence 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 gaming. 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 killing 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 bewildered and gazing at the fire, the huntsman shoots one of them down as soon as he can see its eye glis

tening through the darkness. 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 in perhaps every capital. They are well attended, and often attract a great concourse of ladies as well as gentlemen. 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 barba

cued 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 riding " along and along" through the green wood, 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 circular 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 are 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 would feast a regiment, and camp fires at which all flesh and fowl is roasting, including a "whole hog," that constitutes the barbacue which gives name to this feast.

'When the banquet is ready, you devote yourself to the constellations, as the first course is for the ladies, upon whom the gentlemen attend, as the genius waited upon Aladdin. The second course is for the lords, upon whom the managers and slaves attend. After all, the managers dine also, and they

have servants no less exalted than the ladies.

'A barbacue has from three hundred to eight hundred people, and it is only where a very social life is led that this feast could be so well filled. But sometimes a candidate or an officer invites the whole county, and the number is then greater. The master of the feast, on this occasion, ascends the rostrum, made by the woodman, and which is that part of a tree that is immediately above the roots. From this elevation he harangues the people in good Virginian, which is generally choice English, always excepting toting, which I find in no classic author.'

and

In the elections there are some peculiarities. The candidates frequently nominate themselves, or offer their service through the newspapers; a favor to the electors that would not in New England be acknowledged by a single vote. As it is established by custom, however, it does not indicate any undue share of ambition. The candidates at the south come into more immediate contact with the electors than at the north, where the canvass is chiefly confined to the newspapers. They sometimes, (though this is rare,) go the rounds of the district, and visit the families before an election. The barba cue offers the best means of communicating with the electors themselves; sometimes the constituents invite their representative to this sylvan feast, at other times the friends of a candidate make the festival. On these occasions, a display is made of that natural gift of eloquence which is called stump oratory, from the rostrum, which is sometimes a stump. Here, when the heart is opened by conviviality, the speaker can the more effectually adapt himself to the character and prejudices of his auditors. It is related of an eminent statesman, that on one occasion he met his constituents at a barbacue, where there was much dissatisfaction expressed at one of his votes in the national council. He addressed the people, and closed his speech by thus adverting to the vote:-'I have been told that you are not pleased that I should have given such a vote, though it was given in accordance with my judgment and conscience; it may have been wrong, but I think it right. My friends, I have been your servant for fifteen years, and in all that time I have not failed to satisfy you until now. It is not easy to say which side is

wrong; but I am content to grant for the present that I was mistaken. Now suppose one of you had an old rifle, which for fifteen years had never missed fire, or failed to hit the mark; but at length, for once, it fails and disappoints you! what then would you do with it? would you throw the old rifle away, or would you "peck the flint, and try it again.” "Huzza for C.," was the shout, "peck the flint, and try it again.'

20. EDUCATION. In the southern section of the Union, there are generally provisions for schools, but the population is so thin, that many have few advantages for education. Among the slaves, few can read, and among the whites there are a few who cannot. The number who cannot read, however, is larger than in New England. Some of the colleges are well endowed, and have many scholars, though numbers of the youth are still sent for their education to New England.

21. RELIGION. The sects are numerous; they contain every denomination of christians, and many Jews. The sabbath is less strictly observed than in New England, and in a great part of the section, the pulpits are supplied by travelling preachers, principally Methodists and Baptists."

CHAPTER XXIV. TENNESSEE.

PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY.

1. BOUNDARIES AND EXTENT. Tennessee is bounded N. by Kentucky; E. by North Carolina; S. by Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi; and W. by the river Mississippi, separating it from Missouri and Arkansas. Its length is about 430 miles; its breadth 104. It lies between 35° and 36° 36′ N. lat., and between 81° 30′ and 90° 10′ W. lon., and contains 40,000 square miles. 2. MOUNTAINS. The Cumberland Mountains extend through the state from N. E. to S. W., dividing it into two sections, which geographers distinguish as East and West Tennessee. In East Tennessee are many parallel ridges, the most lofty of which, are the Laurel, Stone, Yellow, Iron, Bald, and Unaka Mountains. All these are peaks of a continued chain. Welling's and Copper Ridge, and Church, Powell's, and Bay's Mountains, are in the N. E. The summits of some of these mountains exhibit plateaus of considerable extent, which admit of good roads, and are inhabited and cultivated. The mountains and hills subside as they approach the Mississippi and Ohio. 3. VALLEYS. The valleys of the small rivers are extremely beautiful, and rich beyond any of the same description in the western states. The valleys of the great streams of the Tennessee and Cumberland, differ little from the alluvions of the other great rivers of the West. On the small valleys are many fine plantations, and yet so lonely that they seem lost among the mountains.

4. RIVERS. The Tennessee rises in the Alleghany Mountains, traverses East Tennessee, and almost the whole northern limit of Alabama, re-enters Tennessee, and crosses almost the whole width of it into Kentucky, and passes into Ohio, 57 miles above its junction with the Mississippi. It is near 1,200 miles in length, and is the largest tributary of the Ohio. It has numerous branches, and is navigable for boats for 1,000 miles; most of the branches rise among the mountains, and are too shallow for navigation, except during the floods, which take place occasionally, at all seasons of the year, and admit flat boats to be floated down to the main stream. The Cumberland rises