ALBERT R. MANN UBRARY AT CORNELL UNIVERSITY Cornell University Library F 213.047 "t ourney in the back country in the win 3 1924 014 527 398 Cornell University Library The original of tiiis book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924014527398 In the Back Country ^^ A Journey in the Back Country -^ ^«f In the Winter of 1853-4 By Frederick Law Olmsted Anthor of **A Journey in the Seaboard Slave States," "A Journey in Texas," *'' Walks and Talks of an American Farmer in England," etc. [Originally Issued in i860] la Two Volutaes Volume I G. p. Putnam's Sons New York London 27 and 29 W. zjd Street 24 Bedford Street, Strand Zbe IknicKecbocket iptess 1907 Ube fsntcftetbocftet press, Hew JBorft PREFACE The narrative presented in this volume, containing the record of certain journeys through the Slave States, is devoted in the main to the hill-country people and to those who are engaged in, or are most directly affected by, the great business of the South — the pro- duction of cotton. The record of facts, except as regards the domestic life of the people, is less elaborate than that under- taken in the Journey in the Seaboard Slave States, because, reference being made to previous observations, less detail is needed to give a fiill statement of that which was seen by the writer. Facts of general obser- vations and conclusions of judgment form a larger part of this volume than of the preceding volume, because these are appropriately deduced from the details before given. The book was prepared for the press nearly in its present form, and was announced for publication in 1857. A chapter was then intended to be added upon the natural history of Southern politics, before prepar- ing which I was interrupted by unanticipated duties. Upon recent examination, it was found that the facts recorded had not lost significance, and that the volume might be published without revision or addition. As the topic of slave insurrection is considerably discussed. iv Preface I will here observe that all of the narrative portion had been printed, and that all the matter of the last chapter bearing upon that subject had been written, some time before the John Brown plot is supposed to have been formed. The controlling considerations which now induce the publication of this volume are, first, that after the publication of the Seaboard Slave States and the Journey in Texas to leave untold what is reported in this, would be to leave my story untrue through incompleteness ; secondly, that the agitation growing out of the condition of the South is now graver, and the truth more important to be known than ever before. Before preparing this volume, I had given more than two years' careful study simply to the matter of fact of the condition of the people, especially the white people, living under a great variety of circumstances where slavery is not prohibited. There has been no publica- tion of observations made with similar advantages, and extended over so large a field. I may add that few men could have been so little inclined to establish pre- viously formed opinions as I was when I began my journey in the South. I left a farm in New York to examine farms in Virginia. The Fillmore compromises had just been accompUshed ; a reaction from a state of suspicion and unwholesome excitement was obvious in the public mind. I " Fine Prospect for Hay.— While riding by a field the other day, which looked as rich and green as a New England meadow, we observed to a man sitting on the fence, ' You have a fine prospect for hay, neighbor.' 'Hay! that's cotton, sir' said he, with an emotion that betrayed an excitement which we Valley of the Lower Mississippi 7 The inclosures are not often of less area than a hund- red acres. Fewer than fifty negroes are seldom found on a plantation ; many muster by the hundred. In general the fields are remarkably free firom weeds and well tilled. I arrived shortly after dusk at Woodville, a well- built and pleasant court-town, with a small but preten- tious hotel. Court was in session, I fancy, for the house was filled with guests of somewhat remarkable character. The landlord was inattentive, and, when followed up, inclined to be uncivil. At the ordinary — supper and breakfast alike — there were twelve men beside myself, all of them wearing black cloth coats, cared to provoke no further ; for we had as soon sport with a rat- tlesnake in the blind days of August as a farmer at this season of the year, badly in the grass. * * * " All jesting aside, we have never known so poor a prospect for cotton in this region. In some instances the fields are clean and well worked, but the cotton is diminutive in size and sickly in appearance. We have seen some fields so foul that it was almost impossible to tell what had been planted. "All this backwardness is attributable to the cold, wet weather that we have had almost constantly since the planting season commenced. When there was a warm spell, it was raining so that plows could not run to any advantage ; so, between the cold and the rain, the cotton crop is very unprom- ising. * * * " The low, flat lands this year have suflFered particularly. Thoroughly saturated all the time, and often overflowed, the crops on them are small and sickly, while the weeds and grass are luxurious and rank. "A week or two of dry weather will make a wonderful change in our agricultural prospects, but we have no idea that any sort of seasons could bring the cotton to more than an average crop." — Hernando (Miss.) Advance, June 22, 1854. 8 In the Back Country blacK cravats, and satin or embroidered silk waistcoats ; all, too, sleek as if just from a barber's hands, and redolent of perfumes, which really had the best of it with the exhalations of the kitchen. Perhaps it was because I was not in the regulation dress that I found no one ready to converse with me, and could obtain not the slightest information about my road, even from the landlord. I might have left Woodville with more respect for this decorum if I had not, when shown by a servant to my room, found two beds in it, each of which proved to be furnished with soiled sheets and greasy pillows, nor was it without reiterated demands and bribery of the servant, that I succeeded in getting them changed on the one I selected. A gentleman of embroidered waistcoat took the other bed as it was, with no appar- ent reluctance, soon after I had effected my arrange- ments. One wash-bowl, and a towel which had already been used, was expected to answer for both of us, and would have done so but that I carried a private towel in my saddle-bags. Another requirement of a civilized household was wanting, and its only substitute unavail- able with decency. The bill was excessive, and the hostler, who had left the mud of yesterday hanging all along the inside of Belshazzar's legs, and who had put the saddle on so awkwardly that I resaddled him myself after he had brought him to the door, grumbled, in presence of the landlord, at the smallness of the gratuity which I saw fit to give him. Valley of the Lower Mississippi 9 The country, for some distance north of Woodville, is the most uneven, for a non-mountainous region, I ever saw. The road seems well engineered, yet you are nearly all the time mounting or descending the sides of protuberances or basins, ribs or dikes. In one place it follows along the top of a crooked ridge, as steep- sided and regular for nearly a quarter of a mile as a high railroad embankment. A man might jump off anywhere and land thirty feet below. The ground being too rough here for cultivation, the dense native forest remains intact. "important to business men" This ridge, a man told me, had been a famous place for robberies. It is not far from the Mississippi bot- toms. "Thar couldn't be," said he, "a better location for a feller that wanted to foUer that business. There was one chap there a spell ago, who built himself a cabin t' other side the river. He used to come over in a dug-out. He could paddle his dug-out up the swamp, you see, to within two mile of the ridge ; then, when he stopped a man, he'd run through the woods to his dug- out, and before the man could get help, he'd be t' other side the Mississippi, a sittin' in his housen as honest as you be. ' ' The same man had another story of the ridge. "Mr. Allen up here caught a runaway once, and started to take him down to Woodville to the jail. He put him in irons and carried him along in his waggin. lo In the Back Country The nigger was peaceable and submissive till they got along onto that yer ridge place. When they got thar, all of a sudden he gin a whop like, and over he went twenty foot plum down the side of the ridge. 'Fore Allen could stop his hoss he'd tumbled and rolled him- self ' way out of sight. He started right away arter him, but he never cotched a sight on him again." HILL-SIDB COTTON CULTURE Not far north of the ridge, plantations are found again, though the character of the surface changes but little. The hill-sides are so plowed that each furrow forms a narrow terrace. After the first plowing, thus scientifically directed, the lines are followed in subse- quent cultivation, year in and year out, so long as enough soil remains to grow cotton with profit. On the hills recently brought into cultivation, broad, serpen- tine ditches, having a fall of from two to four inches in a rod, have been frequently constructed : these are in- tended to prevent the formation of more direct gullies, during heavy rains. Of course, these precautions are not perfectly successful, the cultivated hills in spite of them losing soil every year in a melancholy manner. ABANDONED PI