Books: Letters from an American Farmer

H >> Hector St. John de Crevecoeur >> Letters from an American Farmer

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To this dexterity in managing the husband's business whilst he is
absent, the Nantucket wives unite a great deal of industry. They
spin, or cause to be spun in their houses, abundance of wool and
flax; and would be for ever disgraced and looked upon as idlers if
all the family were not clad in good, neat, and sufficient home-spun
cloth. First Days are the only seasons when it is lawful for both
sexes to exhibit some garments of English manufacture; even these
are of the most moderate price, and of the gravest colours: there is
no kind of difference in their dress, they are all clad alike, and
resemble in that respect the members of one family.

A singular custom prevails here among the women, at which I was
greatly surprised; and am really at a loss how to account for the
original cause that has introduced in this primitive society so
remarkable a fashion, or rather so extraordinary a want. They have
adopted these many years the Asiatic custom of taking a dose of
opium every morning; and so deeply rooted is it, that they would be
at a loss how to live without this indulgence; they would rather be
deprived of any necessary than forego their favourite luxury. This
is much more prevailing among the women than the men, few of the
latter having caught the contagion; though the sheriff, whom I may
call the first person in the island, who is an eminent physician
beside, and whom I had the pleasure of being well acquainted with,
has for many years submitted to this custom. He takes three grains
of it every day after breakfast, without the effects of which, he
often told me, he was not able to transact any business.

It is hard to conceive how a people always happy and healthy, in
consequence of the exercise and labour they undergo, never oppressed
with the vapours of idleness, yet should want the fictitious effects
of opium to preserve that cheerfulness to which their temperance,
their climate, their happy situation so justly entitle them. But
where is the society perfectly free from error or folly; the least
imperfect is undoubtedly that where the greatest good preponderates;
and agreeable to this rule, I can truly say, that I never was
acquainted with a less vicious, or more harmless one.

The majority of the present inhabitants are the descendants of the
twenty-seven first proprietors, who patenteed the island; of the
rest, many others have since come over among them, chiefly from the
Massachusetts: here are neither Scotch, Irish, nor French, as is the
case in most other settlements; they are an unmixed English breed.
The consequence of this extended connection is, that they are all in
some degree related to each other: you must not be surprised
therefore when I tell you, that they always call each other cousin,
uncle or aunt; which are become such common appellations, that no
other are made use of in their daily intercourse: you would be
deemed stiff and affected were you to refuse conforming yourself to
this ancient custom, which truly depicts the image of a large
family. The many who reside here that have not the least claim of
relationship with any one in the town, yet by the power of custom
make use of no other address in their conversation. Were you here
yourself but a few days, you would be obliged to adopt the same
phraseology, which is far from being disagreeable, as it implies a
general acquaintance and friendship, which connects them all in
unity and peace.

Their taste for fishing has been so prevailing, that it has
engrossed all their attention, and even prevented them from
introducing some higher degree of perfection in their agriculture.
There are many useful improvements which might have meliorated their
soil; there are many trees which if transplanted here would have
thriven extremely well, and would have served to shelter as well as
decorate the favourite spots they have so carefully manured. The red
cedar, the locust, [Footnote: A species of what we call here the
two-thorn acacia: it yields the most valuable timber we have, and
its shade is very beneficial to the growth and goodness of the
grass.] the button wood, I am persuaded would have grown here
rapidly and to a great size, with many others; but their thoughts
are turned altogether toward the sea. The Indian corn begins to
yield them considerable crops, and the wheat sown on its stocks is
become a very profitable grain; rye will grow with little care; they
might raise if they would, an immense quantity of buck-wheat.

Such an island inhabited as I have described, is not the place where
gay travellers should resort, in order to enjoy that variety of
pleasures the more splendid towns of this continent afford. Not that
they are wholly deprived of what we might call recreations, and
innocent pastimes; but opulence, instead of luxuries and
extravagancies, produces nothing more here than an increase of
business, an additional degree of hospitality, greater neatness in
the preparation of dishes, and better wines. They often walk and
converse with each other, as I have observed before; and upon
extraordinary occasions, will take a ride to Palpus, where there is
an house of entertainment; but these rural amusements are conducted
upon the same plan of moderation, as those in town. They are so
simple as hardly to be described; the pleasure of going and
returning together; of chatting and walking about, of throwing the
bar, heaving stones, etc., are the only entertainments they are
acquainted with. This is all they practise, and all they seem to
desire. The house at Palpus is the general resort of those who
possess the luxury of a horse and chaise, as well as of those who
still retain, as the majority do, a predilection for their primitive
vehicle. By resorting to that place they enjoy a change of air, they
taste the pleasures of exercise; perhaps an exhilarating bowl, not
at all improper in this climate, affords the chief indulgence known
to these people, on the days of their greatest festivity. The
mounting a horse, must afford a most pleasing exercise to those men
who are so much at sea. I was once invited to that house, and had
the satisfaction of conducting thither one of the many beauties of
that island (for it abounds with handsome women) dressed in all the
bewitching attire of the most charming simplicity: like the rest of
the company, she was cheerful without loud laughs, and smiling
without affectation. They all appeared gay without levity. I had
never before in my life seen so much unaffected mirth, mixed with so
much modesty. The pleasures of the day were enjoyed with the
greatest liveliness and the most innocent freedom; no disgusting
pruderies, no coquettish airs tarnished this enlivening assembly:
they behaved according to their native dispositions, the only rules
of decorum with which they were acquainted. What would an European
visitor have done here without a fiddle, without a dance, without
cards? He would have called it an insipid assembly, and ranked this
among the dullest days he bad ever spent. This rural excursion had a
very great affinity to those practised in our province, with this
difference only, that we have no objection to the sportive dance,
though conducted by the rough accents of some self-taught African
fiddler. We returned as happy as we went; and the brightness of the
moon kindly lengthened a day which had past, like other agreeable
ones, with singular rapidity.

In order to view the island in its longest direction from the town,
I took a ride to the easternmost parts of it, remarkable only for
the Pochick Rip, where their best fish are caught. I past by the
Tetoukemah lots, which are the fields of the community; the fences
were made of cedar posts and rails, and looked perfectly straight
and neat; the various crops they enclosed were flourishing: thence I
descended into Barrey's Valley, where the blue and the spear grass
looked more abundant than I had seen on any other part of the
island; thence to Gib's Pond; and arrived at last at Siasconcet.
Several dwellings had been erected on this wild shore, for the
purpose of sheltering the fishermen in the season of fishing; I
found them all empty, except that particular one to which I had been
directed. It was like the others, built on the highest part of the
shore, in the face of the great ocean; the soil appeared to be
composed of no other stratum but sand, covered with a thinly
scattered herbage. What rendered this house still more worthy of
notice in my eyes, was, that it had been built on the ruins of one
of the ancient huts, erected by the first settlers, for observing
the appearance of the whales. Here lived a single family without a
neighbour; I had never before seen a spot better calculated to
cherish contemplative ideas; perfectly unconnected with the great
world, and far removed from its perturbations. The ever raging ocean
was all that presented itself to the view of this family; it
irresistibly attracted my whole attention: my eyes were
involuntarily directed to the horizontal line of that watery
surface, which is ever in motion, and ever threatening destruction
to these shores. My ears were stunned with the roar of its waves
rolling one over the other, as if impelled by a superior force to
overwhelm the spot on which I stood. My nostrils involuntarily
inhaled the saline vapours which arose from the dispersed particles
of the foaming billows, or from the weeds scattered on the shores.
My mind suggested a thousand vague reflections, pleasing in the hour
of their spontaneous birth, but now half forgot, and all indistinct:
and who is the landman that can behold without affright so singular
an element, which by its impetuosity seems to be the destroyer of
this poor planet, yet at particular times accumulates the scattered
fragments and produces islands and continents fit for men to dwell
on! Who can observe the regular vicissitudes of its waters without
astonishment; now swelling themselves in order to penetrate through
every river and opening, and thereby facilitate navigation; at other
times retiring from the shores, to permit man to collect that
variety of shell fish which is the support of the poor? Who can see
the storms of wind, blowing sometimes with an impetuosity
sufficiently strong even to move the earth, without feeling himself
affected beyond the sphere of common ideas? Can this wind which but
a few days ago refreshed our American fields, and cooled us in the
shade, be the same element which now and then so powerfully
convulses the waters of the sea, dismasts vessels, causes so many
shipwrecks, and such extensive desolations? How diminutive does a
man appear to himself when filled with these thoughts, and standing
as I did on the verge of the ocean! This family lived entirely by
fishing, for the plough has not dared yet to disturb the parched
surface of the neighbouring plain; and to what purpose could this
operation be performed! Where is it that mankind will not find
safety, peace, and abundance, with freedom and civil happiness?
Nothing was wanting here to make this a most philosophical retreat,
but a few ancient trees, to shelter contemplation in its beloved
solitude. There I saw a numerous family of children of various ages-
-the blessings of an early marriage; they were ruddy as the cherry,
healthy as the fish they lived on, hardy as the pine knots: the
eldest were already able to encounter the boisterous waves, and
shuddered not at their approach; early initiating themselves in the
mysteries of that seafaring career, for which they were all
intended: the younger, timid as yet, on the edge of a less agitated
pool, were teaching themselves with nut-shells and pieces of wood,
in imitation of boats, how to navigate in a future day the larger
vessels of their father, through a rougher and deeper ocean. I
stayed two days there on purpose to become acquainted with the
different branches of their economy, and their manner of living in
this singular retreat. The clams, the oysters of the shores, with
the addition of Indian Dumplings, [Footnote: Indian Dumplings are a
peculiar preparation of Indian meal, boiled in large lumps.]
constituted their daily and most substantial food. Larger fish were
often caught on the neighbouring rip; these afforded them their
greatest dainties; they had likewise plenty of smoked bacon. The
noise of the wheels announced the industry of the mother and
daughters; one of them had been bred a weaver, and having a loom in
the house, found means of clothing the whole family; they were
perfectly at ease, and seemed to want for nothing. I found very few
books among these people, who have very little time for reading; the
Bible and a few school tracts, both in the Nattick and English
languages, constituted their most numerous libraries. I saw indeed
several copies of Hudibras, and Josephus; but no one knows who first
imported them. It is something extraordinary to see this people,
professedly so grave, and strangers to every branch of literature,
reading with pleasure the former work, which should seem to require
some degree of taste, and antecedent historical knowledge. They all
read it much, and can by memory repeat many passages; which yet I
could not discover that they understood the beauties of. Is it not a
little singular to see these books in the hands of fishermen, who
are perfect strangers almost to any other? Josephus's history is
indeed intelligible, and much fitter for their modes of education
and taste; as it describes the history of a people from whom we have
received the prophecies which we believe, and the religious laws
which we follow.

Learned travellers, returned from seeing the paintings and
antiquities of Rome and Italy, still filled with the admiration and
reverence they inspire, would hardly be persuaded that so
contemptible a spot, which contains nothing remarkable but the
genius and the industry of its inhabitants, could ever be an object
worthy attention. But I, having never seen the beauties which Europe
contains, cheerfully satisfy myself with attentively examining what
my native country exhibits: if we have neither ancient
amphitheatres, gilded palaces, nor elevated spires; we enjoy in our
woods a substantial happiness which the wonders of art cannot
communicate. None among us suffer oppression either from government
or religion; there are very few poor except the idle, and
fortunately the force of example, and the most ample encouragement,
soon create a new principle of activity, which had been extinguished
perhaps in their native country, for want of those opportunities
which so often compel honest Europeans to seek shelter among us. The
means of procuring subsistence in Europe are limited; the army may
be full, the navy may abound with seamen, the land perhaps wants no
additional labourers, the manufacturer is overcharged with
supernumerary hands; what then must become of the unemployed? Here,
on the contrary, human industry has acquired a boundless field to
exert itself in--a field which will not be fully cultivated in many
ages!

LETTER IX

DESCRIPTION OF CHARLES-TOWN; THOUGHTS ON SLAVERY; ON PHYSICAL EVIL;
A MELANCHOLY SCENE

Charles-town is, in the north, what Lima is in the south; both are
Capitals of the richest provinces of their respective hemispheres:
you may therefore conjecture, that both cities must exhibit the
appearances necessarily resulting from riches. Peru abounding in
gold, Lima is filled with inhabitants who enjoy all those gradations
of pleasure, refinement, and luxury, which proceed from wealth.
Carolina produces commodities, more valuable perhaps than gold,
because they are gained by greater industry; it exhibits also on our
northern stage, a display of riches and luxury, inferior indeed to
the former, but far superior to what are to be seen in our northern
towns. Its situation is admirable, being built at the confluence of
two large rivers, which receive in their course a great number of
inferior streams; all navigable in the spring, for flat boats. Here
the produce of this extensive territory concentres; here therefore
is the seat of the most valuable exportation; their wharfs, their
docks, their magazines, are extremely convenient to facilitate this
great commercial business. The inhabitants are the gayest in
America; it is called the centre of our beau monde, and is always
filled with the richest planters of the province, who resort hither
in quest of health and pleasure. Here are always to be seen a great
number of valetudinarians from the West Indies, seeking for the
renovation of health, exhausted by the debilitating nature of their
sun, air, and modes of living. Many of these West Indians have I
seen, at thirty, loaded with the infirmities of old age; for nothing
is more common in those countries of wealth, than for persons to
lose the abilities of enjoying the comforts of life, at a time when
we northern men just begin to taste the fruits of our labour and
prudence. The round of pleasure, and the expenses of those citizens'
tables, are much superior to what you would imagine: indeed the
growth of this town and province has been astonishingly rapid. It is
pity that the narrowness of the neck on which it stands prevents it
from increasing; and which is the reason why houses are so dear. The
heat of the climate, which is sometimes very great in the interior
parts of the country, is always temperate in Charles-Town; though
sometimes when they have no sea breezes the sun is too powerful. The
climate renders excesses of all kinds very dangerous, particularly
those of the table; and yet, insensible or fearless of danger, they
live on, and enjoy a short and a merry life: the rays of their sun
seem to urge them irresistibly to dissipation and pleasure: on the
contrary, the women, from being abstemious, reach to a longer period
of life, and seldom die without having had several husbands. An
European at his first arrival must be greatly surprised when he sees
the elegance of their houses, their sumptuous furniture, as well as
the magnificence of their tables. Can he imagine himself in a
country, the establishment of which is so recent?

The three principal classes of inhabitants are, lawyers, planters,
and merchants; this is the province which has afforded to the first
the richest spoils, for nothing can exceed their wealth, their
power, and their influence. They have reached the ne plus ultra of
worldly felicity; no plantation is secured, no title is good, no
will is valid, but what they dictate, regulate, and approve. The
whole mass of provincial property is become tributary to this
society; which, far above priests and bishops, disdain to be
satisfied with the poor Mosaical portion of the tenth. I appeal to
the many inhabitants, who, while contending perhaps for their right
to a few hundred acres, have lost by the mazes of the law their
whole patrimony. These men are more properly law givers than
interpreters of the law; and have united here, as well as in most
other provinces, the skill and dexterity of the scribe with the
power and ambition of the prince: who can tell where this may lead
in a future day? The nature of our laws, and the spirit of freedom,
which often tends to make us litigious, must necessarily throw the
greatest part of the property of the colonies into the hands of
these gentlemen. In another century, the law will possess in the
north, what now the church possesses in Peru and Mexico.

While all is joy, festivity, and happiness in Charles-Town, would
you imagine that scenes of misery overspread in the country? Their
ears by habit are become deaf, their hearts are hardened; they
neither see, hear, nor feel for the woes of their poor slaves, from
whose painful labours all their wealth proceeds. Here the horrors of
slavery, the hardship of incessant toils, are unseen; and no one
thinks with compassion of those showers of sweat and of tears which
from the bodies of Africans, daily drop, and moisten the ground they
till. The cracks of the whip urging these miserable beings to
excessive labour, are far too distant from the gay Capital to be
heard. The chosen race eat, drink, and live happy, while the
unfortunate one grubs up the ground, raises indigo, or husks the
rice; exposed to a sun full as scorching as their native one;
without the support of good food, without the cordials of any
cheering liquor. This great contrast has often afforded me subjects
of the most conflicting meditation. On the one side, behold a people
enjoying all that life affords most bewitching and pleasurable,
without labour, without fatigue, hardly subjected to the trouble of
wishing. With gold, dug from Peruvian mountains, they order vessels
to the coasts of Guinea; by virtue of that gold, wars, murders, and
devastations are committed in some harmless, peaceable African
neighbourhood, where dwelt innocent people, who even knew not but
that all men were black. The daughter torn from her weeping mother,
the child from the wretched parents, the wife from the loving
husband; whole families swept away and brought through storms and
tempests to this rich metropolis! There, arranged like horses at a
fair, they are branded like cattle, and then driven to toil, to
starve, and to languish for a few years on the different plantations
of these citizens. And for whom must they work? For persons they
know not, and who have no other power over them than that of
violence, no other right than what this accursed metal has given
them! Strange order of things! Oh, Nature, where art thou?--Are not
these blacks thy children as well as we? On the other side, nothing
is to be seen but the most diffusive misery and wretchedness,
unrelieved even in thought or wish! Day after day they drudge on
without any prospect of ever reaping for themselves; they are
obliged to devote their lives, their limbs, their will, and every
vital exertion to swell the wealth of masters; who look not upon
them with half the kindness and affection with which they consider
their dogs and horses. Kindness and affection are not the portion of
those who till the earth, who carry the burdens, who convert the
logs into useful boards. This reward, simple and natural as one
would conceive it, would border on humanity; and planters must have
none of it!

If negroes are permitted to become fathers, this fatal indulgence
only tends to increase their misery: the poor companions of their
scanty pleasures are likewise the companions of their labours; and
when at some critical seasons they could wish to see them relieved,
with tears in their eyes they behold them perhaps doubly oppressed,
obliged to bear the burden of nature--a fatal present--as well as
that of unabated tasks. How many have I seen cursing the
irresistible propensity, and regretting, that by having tasted of
those harmless joys, they had become the authors of double misery to
their wives. Like their masters, they are not permitted to partake
of those ineffable sensations with which nature inspires the hearts
of fathers and mothers; they must repel them all, and become callous
and passive. This unnatural state often occasions the most acute,
the most pungent of their afflictions; they have no time, like us,
tenderly to rear their helpless off-spring, to nurse them on their
knees, to enjoy the delight of being parents. Their paternal
fondness is embittered by considering, that if their children live,
they must live to be slaves like themselves; no time is allowed them
to exercise their pious office, the mothers must fasten them on
their backs, and, with this double load, follow their husbands in
the fields, where they too often hear no other sound than that of
the voice or whip of the taskmaster, and the cries of their infants,
broiling in the sun. These unfortunate creatures cry and weep like
their parents, without a possibility of relief; the very instinct of
the brute, so laudable, so irresistible, runs counter here to their
master's interest; and to that god, all the laws of nature must give
way. Thus planters get rich; so raw, so unexperienced am I in this
mode of life, that were I to be possessed of a plantation, and my
slaves treated as in general they are here, never could I rest in
peace; my sleep would be perpetually disturbed by a retrospect of
the frauds committed in Africa, in order to entrap them; frauds
surpassing in enormity everything which a common mind can possibly
conceive. I should be thinking of the barbarous treatment they meet
with on ship-board; of their anguish, of the despair necessarily
inspired by their situation, when torn from their friends and
relations; when delivered into the hands of a people differently
coloured, whom they cannot understand; carried in a strange machine
over an ever agitated element, which they had never seen before; and
finally delivered over to the severities of the whippers, and the
excessive labours of the field. Can it be possible that the force of
custom should ever make me deaf to all these reflections, and as
insensible to the injustice of that trade, and to their miseries, as
the rich inhabitants of this town seem to be? What then is man; this
being who boasts so much of the excellence and dignity of his
nature, among that variety of unscrutable mysteries, of unsolvable
problems, with which he is surrounded? The reason why man has been
thus created, is not the least astonishing! It is said, I know that
they are much happier here than in the West Indies; because land
being cheaper upon this continent than in those islands, the fields
allowed them to raise their subsistence from, are in general more
extensive. The only possible chance of any alleviation depends on
the humour of the planters, who, bred in the midst of slaves, learn
from the example of their parents to despise them; and seldom
conceive either from religion or philosophy, any ideas that tend to
make their fate less calamitous; except some strong native
tenderness of heart, some rays of philanthropy, overcome the
obduracy contracted by habit.

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