Thomas Low Nichols

“ A thousand miles up the river the winters are long and cold. The ice, two feet in thickness, is cut out in blocks, and stored up for the opening of navigation. Loaded in immense flat-boats or rafts of boards, it floats down with the current, to Memphis. Two men, on each flat-boat, keep the frail craft in mid-channel, signal the steam-boats that might run them down, and lazily while away the weeks of this slow and tedious voyage. ”

“ Captain Walter came and told me, with some bitterness, the result of his interview with my father. I knew that he was poor, but I knew that this was the only reasonable objection that could be made to him, and I laid my hand in his—a strong, manly hand—strong and true, and I said: “‘Be patient: I am yours, and I will never be any one’s but yours, while this world stands.’
“He went away upon a long voyage, and a very important one, for my father liked him as a captain of his ship, and knew well that he could trust him to the last drop of his blood to protect ship and cargo. ”

“ I could see the whole line of batteries on either side. Boats with muffled oars were moving on the river. Murmuring sounds came through the stillness from the British shore. Suddenly, in the calm stillness of the deep night, the whole line of batteries opened a rapid and continuous fire. Cannon sent their iron hail crashing among the trees, rockets went blazing and roaring across the dark river, and shells went hissing high into the air, their track made distinctly visible by the blazing fuze, until they burst above, or in the forest. The rebel batteries were not silent. ”

“ A steamboat, the Caroline, was cut out of the ice at Buffalo, and sent down the still open river, to ply between the rebel island and the American shore, to carry men, arms, and supplies to the rebels. The position was a remarkable one. Between Navy Island and the Canadian shore flows the main current of the Niagara, a deep and rapid river, which a short distance below turns to foaming rapids; while the roar of the great cataract fills the air, the ground trembles with its shock, and the cloud that rises above it is plainly visible. ”

“ Every negro could make five or six bales of cotton, besides raising his own corn and bacon. A hundred negroes, therefore, besides their own support, made five or six hundred bales of cotton, worth twenty-five or thirty thousand dollars, which represents the clear profit of a well-conducted plantation. The yearly export of the single town of Montgomery was 106,000 bales, amounting to 5,300,000 dollars a-year. Well might it be prosperous and rich. There may have been poor people, but I saw none. In a thousand miles of that country one never sees a hand held out for charity. ”

“ Slavery, as seen by the traveller in the South, presents only its softest and most amiable aspects. There is something fascinating in the respect with which every white person is treated, and the obsequious alacrity with which he is served. Every negro, to whomsoever he may belong, must be respectful and obedient to any white person. The superiority of race is asserted and acknowledged. If there are hardships and cruelties in this servitude, they are rarely seen by a stranger. The negroes are careless and happy, or stolid and stupid. ”

“ It is not easy to write of the social character of a foreign city without seeming to betray social confidences. I shall try not to give offence. One of my first visits was to a lady, who though quite at home, not only in New Orleans and New York, but in half the capitals of Europe, is a thorough Southerner, and takes special pride in Mobile. She is a lively writer, but still more lively in conversation. She speaks all necessary languages, and knows everybody in the world worth knowing. ”

“ My aunt Calista was one of the prettiest of all little fairy-like women. As a girl her beauty must have been something wonderfully distracting. She was once the belle of a famous and quaint old sea-town, full of fortunes made in foreign trade, prize-money, and kinds of traffic, thought honourable enough some years ago, but now held in such reprobation, that I prefer not to mention them. ”

“ A European traveller is astonished to see so well-dressed, and in many respects, so well-bred a people given over to such a vile habit as the constant and profuse chewing of tobacco, with its disgusting accompaniments. The floors of rail cars are deluged, the parlors of hotels and cabins of steamboats are covered with huge spittoons. ”

“ My pretty brig is my own. The war is an ugly business, but you know me of old—we are “enemies in war, in peace friends,” all but you, old fellow—I am your friend always, as you know.’
“‘And how will your crew stand the loss of their share of prize-money?’ asked my captain. ”

“ You meet steamers and pass flat boats, going lazily down with the current, carrying coal, perhaps, from the carboniferous banks of the Monongahela, where it crops out in great seams in the river bank, to Memphis or New Orleans. In its way, it is the poetry of travelling. The rail is more rapid, but in comfort there is no comparison. ”

“ We are not strong enough to fight her.’
“‘There are muskets and pistols in the cabin,’ said I, ‘and we have two cannons on deck.’
“‘Well enough to frighten savages, or beat off the Malay pirates; but that brig is well armed, and must have plenty of men, by the way they handle her. If she is a privateer, we must surrender. If a pirate, we must fight. Her Long Tom will make oven wood of us, but we must take our chance.’
“We held on, praying for night, and storm and darkness. The full moon rode high in the heavens, and silvered the waves through which our good ship ploughed gallantly. ”

“ A flag of stars and stripes went up to her mast-head, and the smoke of a cannon curled up from her deck. It was the first signal. The commander of the brig was in the field of my glass and my worst fears were dispelled.
“‘Look!’ said I to my husband, giving him the glass; ‘that man is not a pirate.’
“I could not be mistaken. He was a fine-looking man of thirty-five or forty, in an undress naval uniform. His bearing was manly, and his face, when I got a look at it, was clear and open. My captain took the glass, and gave an anxious look.
“‘I believe you are right, my darling,’ said he. ”

“ The two fine rivers which unite to form the Mobile, have, like it, preserved their Indian names, but how the tribe that found for two of them such musical designations as Mobile and Alabama ever came to name a river the Tombigbee, I shall leave to some Choctaw or Cherokee to find a satisfactory explanation. Perhaps I do the aboriginal savages injustice. The Americans are not slow at corrupting names when they can make them sound more familiar. ”

“ The population of such a city is like nothing in Europe. The middle class is small—the lower class is wanting. There is more wealth, style, and fashion in a town like Montgomery, of ten thousand inhabitants, than in a European town of eighty or a hundred thousand.
When I arrived in Montgomery, the good citizens had a new sensation. Since the abolition of the slave trade, no negroes had ever been imported from Africa, until the owner of the yacht Wanderer took a fancy to buy a small cargo at Dahomey, and distribute them, as an experiment, among the planters of Alabama. ”

“ I have not been to Liberia, and cannot tell how it may be where negroes, with the advantages of civilisation, are masters of the situation, and have no antipathies or rude repulsions of race to contend against. There may be great refinement of manners in Liberia; it is certain that the habitual deference of the negro to the white, and the corresponding condescension of the white gentleman to the negro, produces a kind of courtliness of behaviour which is not seen in the free communities of the Northern States.
Mobile is one of the oldest cities of the Southern States. ”

“ The winter puts a period to all labours connected with navigation, and Buffalo, in winter, was full of lake sailors, steamboat men, canallers, and hundreds more, connected with trade and navigation, spending their summer wages, with nothing to do, and ready, as idle hands, for Satan’s work of mischief. ”

“ The Alabama flows through the richest cotton country in the world. It winds about as if it had taken a contract to water as much of the state as possible, and give a good steamboat landing to every plantation. Our general course, from Mobile to Montgomery, was north-east, but we were often steaming for hours south-west, and in every other direction. The distance, as the crow flies, is a hundred and sixty miles: by the river it is little less than four hundred. ”

“ It would require a painter’s pencil, with a palette plentifully charged with ivory black, to do justice to the boy of eight who waited upon the table, or the younger apprentice of six, whose important business it was to wield a long whisk, and make war on every fly that dared to alight in that vicinity. ”

“ Over the great saloon and its double range of state-rooms, is the promenade deck, on which are built the state-rooms of the officers and pilots. The deck above this is called the hurricane deck, and above this rises the pilot house; which, with its large windows on all sides, made comfortable by a stove in winter, commanding an unimpeded view, and communicating by signal-bells and speaking tubes with the engineers, and by chains from the wheel to the rudder, gives the pilots, as the steersmen of these boats are called, complete command of the boat in its often difficult navigation. ”

“ The servants of old families, where generations of black men have served generations of whites, have all the pride of family and ancestry, and look down with aristocratic contempt upon the common niggers of the nouveaux riches. That Slavery has either a strong fascination, or some redeeming features, may be judged from the fact that English, Irish, and the Northern American emigrants to the South, whatever their former opinions, generally follow the customs of the country, and become the owners of slaves. ”

“ The prairies have a monotony of their own. Your eye searches all round the horizon for the joyous blue peak of a far-off mountain. You cannot even see a tree. The railway itself is tiresome in its straight-lined and dead-level uniformity. A deep cut, a high embankment, a heavy grade, or a sharp curve, would be a relief. The only variety we had was that of the violent motion caused by the displacement of the ties by frost. This was so great at times as to set all the cars dancing, and almost to throw the passengers from their seats. ”

“ Between decks are groups of negroes—men, women, and children—who have come down the river from Kentucky and are bound to the plantations up the Alabama. Some are asleep; others are reclining in picturesque groups, while a ring of whites and blacks are enjoying the rude music and dance. ”

“ A man does not take so good care even of a hired horse as of one he owns. So, as I had an island down here, with plenty of clay on it, and bricks were in good demand, I hired a Yankee overseer, and set the boys to making bricks. The women cook and take care of them, and I go down every week or two to see how they get on, and carry them some little comforts, tea, coffee, and tobacco.” “And how does the Yankee overseer?” I asked.
“Very well, now. He wanted to drive too hard at first, and thought the negroes ought to work as hard as he did. ”

“ This is an ante-room to the great saloon, which broad, high, well-lighted, and furnished with marble tables, glass chandeliers, mirrors, sofas, &c., reaches to the stern of the boat, perhaps 200 feet. On each side are state rooms of a large size, and furnished with every convenience. The panels of the great saloon are painted in oil, with landscapes by the best artists, and no cost has been spared in upholstery. The whole boat is lighted with gas, and hot and cold baths can be had at a moment’s notice. ”

“ Mobile is older than New Orleans; but I will not write its history. It has now a population of 28,000, a large commerce, and as it lies at the mouth of two rivers, navigable for hundreds of miles through the richest cotton regions of the South, it is, with respect to this trade, one of the most important of American cities. The streets are broad and finely built, with a profusion of shade, trees and shrubbery. The drives around are exceedingly fine, as the land rises gradually from the sea. ”

“ No waiter expects a fee. The only extras are boots and porter. At the end of a long trip, ladies usually give a small gratuity to the chambermaid.
On a high, bold bluff, we descry two miles of handsome buildings, and our boat rounds to, so as to bring her head up stream, and in a few moments we land at Memphis. The shore is thronged with hacks and porters. The hotels are not half a mile away, and the fare demanded is the modest sum of ten shillings. The Southerners are devoted to free trade. I have known New Orleans cabmen to ask and get five pounds for taking a load of passengers a few rods. ”

“ Well I might be, for a man could span her waist with his two hands, and she was more like a marvellous doll, or a stray fairy, than a mortal woman. Her feet and ankles were past all comprehension for littleness and elegance. ”