Books: Letters from an American Farmer

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

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I have not resided here long enough to become insensible of pain for
the objects which I every day behold. In the choice of my friends
and acquaintance, I always endeavour to find out those whose
dispositions are somewhat congenial with my own. We have slaves
likewise in our northern provinces; I hope the time draws near when
they will be all emancipated: but how different their lot, how
different their situation, in every possible respect! They enjoy as
much liberty as their masters, they are as well clad, and as well
fed; in health and sickness they are tenderly taken care of; they
live under the same roof, and are, truly speaking, a part of our
families. Many of them are taught to read and write, and are well
instructed in the principles of religion; they are the companions of
our labours, and treated as such; they enjoy many perquisites, many
established holidays, and are not obliged to work more than white
people. They marry where inclination leads them; visit their wives
every week; are as decently clad as the common people; they are
indulged in educating, cherishing, and chastising their children,
who are taught subordination to them as to their lawful parents: in
short, they participate in many of the benefits of our society,
without being obliged to bear any of its burdens. They are fat,
healthy, and hearty, and far from repining at their fate; they think
themselves happier than many of the lower class whites: they share
with their masters the wheat and meat provision they help to raise;
many of those whom the good Quakers have emancipated have received
that great benefit with tears of regret, and have never quitted,
though free, their former masters and benefactors.

But is it really true, as I have heard it asserted here, that those
blacks are incapable of feeling the spurs of emulation, and the
cheerful sound of encouragement? By no means; there are a thousand
proofs existing of their gratitude and fidelity: those hearts in
which such noble dispositions can grow, are then like ours, they are
susceptible of every generous sentiment, of every useful motive of
action; they are capable of receiving lights, of imbibing ideas that
would greatly alleviate the weight of their miseries. But what
methods have in general been made use of to obtain so desirable an
end? None; the day in which they arrive and are sold, is the first
of their labours; labours, which from that hour admit of no respite;
for though indulged by law with relaxation on Sundays, they are
obliged to employ that time which is intended for rest, to till
their little plantations. What can be expected from wretches in such
circumstances? Forced from their native country, cruelly treated
when on board, and not less so on the plantations to which they are
driven; is there anything in this treatment but what must kindle all
the passions, sow the seeds of inveterate resentment, and nourish a
wish of perpetual revenge? They are left to the irresistible effects
of those strong and natural propensities; the blows they receive,
are they conducive to extinguish them, or to win their affections?
They are neither soothed by the hopes that their slavery will ever
terminate but with their lives; or yet encouraged by the goodness of
their food, or the mildness of their treatment. The very hopes held
out to mankind by religion, that consolatory system, so useful to
the miserable, are never presented to them; neither moral nor
physical means are made use of to soften their chains; they are left
in their original and untutored state; that very state wherein the
natural propensities of revenge and warm passions are so soon
kindled. Cheered by no one single motive that can impel the will, or
excite their efforts; nothing but terrors and punishments are
presented to them; death is denounced if they run away; horrid
delaceration if they speak with their native freedom; perpetually
awed by the terrible cracks of whips, or by the fear of capital
punishments, while even those punishments often fail of their
purpose.

A clergyman settled a few years ago at George-Town, and feeling as I
do now, warmly recommended to the planters, from the pulpit, a
relaxation of severity; he introduced the benignity of Christianity,
and pathetically made use of the admirable precepts of that system
to melt the hearts of his congregation into a greater degree of
compassion toward their slaves than had been hitherto customary;
"Sir," said one of his hearers, "we pay you a genteel salary to read
to us the prayers of the liturgy, and to explain to us such parts of
the Gospel as the rule of the church directs; but we do not want you
to teach us what we are to do with our blacks." The clergyman found
it prudent to withhold any farther admonition. Whence this
astonishing right, or rather this barbarous custom, for most
certainly we have no kind of right beyond that of force? We are
told, it is true, that slavery cannot be so repugnant to human
nature as we at first imagine, because it has been practised in all
ages, and in all nations: the Lacedemonians themselves, those great
assertors of liberty, conquered the Helotes with the design of
making them their slaves; the Romans, whom we consider as our
masters in civil and military policy, lived in the exercise of the
most horrid oppression; they conquered to plunder and to enslave.
What a hideous aspect the face of the earth must then have
exhibited! Provinces, towns, districts, often depopulated! their
inhabitants driven to Rome, the greatest market in the world, and
there sold by thousands! The Roman dominions were tilled by the
hands of unfortunate people, who had once been, like their victors,
free, rich, and possessed of every benefit society can confer; until
they became subject to the cruel right of war, and to lawless force.
Is there then no superintending power who conducts the moral
operations of the world, as well as the physical? The same sublime
hand which guides the planets round the sun with so much exactness,
which preserves the arrangement of the whole with such exalted
wisdom and paternal care, and prevents the vast system from falling
into confusion; doth it abandon mankind to all the errors, the
follies, and the miseries, which their most frantic rage, and their
most dangerous vices and passions can produce?

The history of the earth! doth it present anything but crimes of the
most heinous nature, committed from one end of the world to the
other? We observe avarice, rapine, and murder, equally prevailing in
all parts. History perpetually tells us of millions of people
abandoned to the caprice of the maddest princes, and of whole
nations devoted to the blind fury of tyrants. Countries destroyed;
nations alternately buried in ruins by other nations; some parts of
the world beautifully cultivated, returned again to the pristine
state; the fruits of ages of industry, the toil of thousands in a
short time destroyed by a few! If one corner breathes in peace for a
few years, it is, in turn subjected, torn, and levelled; one would
almost believe the principles of action in man, considered as the
first agent of this planet, to be poisoned in their most essential
parts. We certainly are not that class of beings which we vainly
think ourselves to be; man an animal of prey, seems to have rapine
and the love of bloodshed implanted in his heart; nay, to hold it
the most honourable occupation in society: we never speak of a hero
of mathematics, a hero of knowledge of humanity; no, this
illustrious appellation is reserved for the most successful butchers
of the world. If Nature has given us a fruitful soil to inhabit, she
has refused us such inclinations and propensities as would afford us
the full enjoyment of it. Extensive as the surface of this planet
is, not one half of it is yet cultivated, not half replenished; she
created man, and placed him either in the woods or plains, and
provided him with passions which must for ever oppose his happiness;
everything is submitted to the power of the strongest; men, like the
elements, are always at war; the weakest yield to the most potent;
force, subtlety, and malice, always triumph over unguarded honesty
and simplicity. Benignity, moderation, and justice, are virtues
adapted only to the humble paths of life: we love to talk of virtue
and to admire its beauty, while in the shade of solitude and
retirement; but when we step forth into active life, if it happen to
be in competition with any passion or desire, do we observe it to
prevail? Hence so many religious impostors have triumphed over the
credulity of mankind, and have rendered their frauds the creeds of
succeeding generations, during the course of many ages; until worn
away by time, they have been replaced by new ones. Hence the most
unjust war, if supported by the greatest force, always succeeds;
hence the most just ones, when supported only by their justice, as
often fail. Such is the ascendancy of power; the supreme arbiter of
all the revolutions which we observe in this planet: so irresistible
is power, that it often thwarts the tendency of the most forcible
causes, and prevents their subsequent salutary effects, though
ordained for the good of man by the Governor of the universe. Such
is the perverseness of human nature; who can describe it in all its
latitude?

In the moments of our philanthropy we often talk of an indulgent
nature, a kind parent, who for the benefit of mankind has taken
singular pains to vary the genera of plants, fruits, grain, and the
different productions of the earth; and has spread peculiar
blessings in each climate. This is undoubtedly an object of
contemplation which calls forth our warmest gratitude; for so
singularly benevolent have those parental intentions been, that
where barrenness of soil or severity of climate prevail, there she
has implanted in the heart of man, sentiments which overbalance
every misery, and supply the place of every want. She has given to
the inhabitants of these regions, an attachment to their savage
rocks and wild shores, unknown to those who inhabit the fertile
fields of the temperate zone. Yet if we attentively view this globe,
will it not appear rather a place of punishment, than of delight?
And what misfortune! that those punishments should fall on the
innocent, and its few delights be enjoyed by the most unworthy.
Famine, diseases, elementary convulsions, human feuds, dissensions,
etc., are the produce of every climate; each climate produces
besides, vices, and miseries peculiar to its latitude. View the
frigid sterility of the north, whose famished inhabitants hardly
acquainted with the sun, live and fare worse than the bears they
hunt: and to which they are superior only in the faculty of
speaking. View the arctic and antarctic regions, those huge voids,
where nothing lives; regions of eternal snow: where winter in all
his horrors has established his throne, and arrested every creative
power of nature. Will you call the miserable stragglers in these
countries by the name of men? Now contrast this frigid power of the
north and south with that of the sun; examine the parched lands of
the torrid zone, replete with sulphureous exhalations; view those
countries of Asia subject to pestilential infections which lay
nature waste; view this globe often convulsed both from within and
without; pouring forth from several mouths, rivers of boiling
matter, which are imperceptibly leaving immense subterranean graves,
wherein millions will one day perish! Look at the poisonous soil of
the equator, at those putrid slimy tracks, teeming with horrid
monsters, the enemies of the human race; look next at the sandy
continent, scorched perhaps by the fatal approach of some ancient
comet, now the abode of desolation. Examine the rains, the
convulsive storms of those climates, where masses of sulphur,
bitumen, and electrical fire, combining their dreadful powers, are
incessantly hovering and bursting over a globe threatened with
dissolution. On this little shell, how very few are the spots where
man can live and flourish? even under those mild climates which seem
to breathe peace and happiness, the poison of slavery, the fury of
despotism, and the rage of superstition, are all combined against
man! There only the few live and rule, whilst the many starve and
utter ineffectual complaints: there, human nature appears more
debased, perhaps than in the less favoured climates. The fertile
plains of Asia, the rich low lands of Egypt and of Diarbeck, the
fruitful fields bordering on the Tigris and the Euphrates, the
extensive country of the East Indies in all its separate districts;
all these must to the geographical eye, seem as if intended for
terrestrial paradises: but though surrounded with the spontaneous
riches of nature, though her kindest favours seem to be shed on
those beautiful regions with the most profuse hand; yet there in
general we find the most wretched people in the world. Almost
everywhere, liberty so natural to mankind is refused, or rather
enjoyed but by their tyrants; the word slave, is the appellation of
every rank, who adore as a divinity, a being worse than themselves;
subject to every caprice, and to every lawless rage which
unrestrained power can give. Tears are shed, perpetual groans are
heard, where only the accents of peace, alacrity, and gratitude
should resound. There the very delirium of tyranny tramples on the
best gifts of nature, and sports with the fate, the happiness, the
lives of millions: there the extreme fertility of the ground always
indicates the extreme misery of the inhabitants!

Everywhere one part of the human species are taught the art of
shedding the blood of the other; of setting fire to their dwellings;
of levelling the works of their industry: half of the existence of
nations regularly employed in destroying other nations.--"What
little political felicity is to be met with here and there, has cost
oceans of blood to purchase; as if good was never to be the portion
of unhappy man. Republics, kingdoms, monarchies, founded either on
fraud or successful violence, increase by pursuing the steps of the
same policy, until they are destroyed in their turn, either by the
influence of their own crimes, or by more successful but equally
criminal enemies."

If from this general review of human nature, we descend to the
examination of what is called civilised society; there the
combination of every natural and artificial want, makes us pay very
dear for what little share of political felicity we enjoy. It is a
strange heterogeneous assemblage of vices and virtues, and of a
variety of other principles, for ever at war, for ever jarring, for
ever producing some dangerous, some distressing extreme. Where do
you conceive then that nature intended we should be happy? Would you
prefer the state of men in the woods, to that of men in a more
improved situation? Evil preponderates in both; in the first they
often eat each other for want of food, and in the other they often
starve each other for want of room. For my part, I think the vices
and miseries to be found in the latter, exceed those of the former;
in which real evil is more scarce, more supportable, and less
enormous. Yet we wish to see the earth peopled; to accomplish the
happiness of kingdoms, which is said to consist in numbers. Gracious
God! to what end is the introduction of so many beings into a mode
of existence in which they must grope amidst as many errors, commit
as many crimes, and meet with as many diseases, wants, and
sufferings!

The following scene will I hope account for these melancholy
reflections, and apologise for the gloomy thoughts with which I have
filled this letter: my mind is, and always has been, oppressed since
I became a witness to it. I was not long since invited to dine with
a planter who lived three miles from----, where he then resided. In
order to avoid the heat of the sun, I resolved to go on foot,
sheltered in a small path, leading through a pleasant wood. I was
leisurely travelling along, attentively examining some peculiar
plants which I had collected, when all at once I felt the air
strongly agitated, though the day was perfectly calm and sultry. I
immediately cast my eyes toward the cleared ground, from which I was
but at a small distance, in order to see whether it was not
occasioned by a sudden shower; when at that instant a sound
resembling a deep rough voice, uttered, as I thought, a few
inarticulate monosyllables. Alarmed and surprised, I precipitately
looked all round, when I perceived at about six rods distance
something resembling a cage, suspended to the limbs of a tree; all
the branches of which appeared covered with large birds of prey,
fluttering about, and anxiously endeavouring to perch on the cage.
Actuated by an involuntary motion of my hands, more than by any
design of my mind, I fired at them; they all flew to a short
distance, with a most hideous noise: when, horrid to think and
painful to repeat, I perceived a negro, suspended in the cage, and
left there to expire! I shudder when I recollect that the birds had
already picked out his eyes, his cheek bones were bare; his arms had
been attacked in several places, and his body seemed covered with a
multitude of wounds. From the edges of the hollow sockets and from
the lacerations with which he was disfigured, the blood slowly
dropped, and tinged the ground beneath. No sooner were the birds
flown, than swarms of insects covered the whole body of this
unfortunate wretch, eager to feed on his mangled flesh and to drink
his blood. I found myself suddenly arrested by the power of affright
and terror; my nerves were convoked; I trembled, I stood motionless,
involuntarily contemplating the fate of this negro, in all its
dismal latitude. The living spectre, though deprived of his eyes,
could still distinctly hear, and in his uncouth dialect begged me to
give him some water to allay his thirst. Humanity herself would have
recoiled back with horror; she would have balanced whether to lessen
such reliefless distress, or mercifully with one blow to end this
dreadful scene of agonising torture! Had I had a ball in my gun, I
certainly should have despatched him; but finding myself unable to
perform so kind an office, I sought, though trembling, to relieve
him as well as I could. A shell ready fixed to a pole, which had
been used by some negroes, presented itself to me; filled it with
water, and with trembling hands I guided it to the quivering lips of
the wretched sufferer. Urged by the irresistible power of thirst, he
endeavoured to meet it, as he instinctively guessed its approach by
the noise it made in passing through the bars of the cage. "Tanke,
you white man, tanke you, pute some poison and give me." "How long
have you been hanging there?" I asked him. "Two days, and me no die;
the birds, the birds; aaah me!" Oppressed with the reflections which
this shocking spectacle afforded me, I mustered strength enough to
walk away, and soon reached the house at which I intended to dine.
There I heard that the reason for this slave being thus punished,
was on account of his having killed the overseer of the plantation.
They told me that the laws of self-preservation rendered such
executions necessary; and supported the doctrine of slavery with the
arguments generally made use of to justify the practice; with the
repetition of which I shall not trouble you at present.--Adieu.

LETTER X

ON SNAKES; AND ON THE HUMMING BIRD

Why would you prescribe this task; you know that what we take up
ourselves seems always lighter than what is imposed on us by others.
You insist on my saying something about our snakes; and in relating
what I know concerning them, were it not for two singularities, the
one of which I saw, and the other I received from an eye-witness, I
should have but very little to observe. The southern provinces are
the countries where nature has formed the greatest variety of
alligators, snakes, serpents; and scorpions, from the smallest size,
up to the pine barren, the largest species known here. We have but
two, whose stings are mortal, which deserve to be mentioned; as for
the black one, it is remarkable for nothing but its industry,
agility, beauty, and the art of enticing birds by the power of its
eyes. I admire it much, and never kill it, though its formidable
length and appearance often get the better of the philosophy of some
people, particularly of Europeans. The most dangerous one is the
pilot, or copperhead; for the poison of which no remedy has yet been
discovered. It bears the first name because it always precedes the
rattlesnake; that is, quits its state of torpidity in the spring a
week before the other. It bears the second name on account of its
head being adorned with many copper-coloured spots. It lurks in
rocks near the water, and is extremely active and dangerous. Let man
beware of it! I have heard only of one person who was stung by a
copperhead in this country. The poor wretch instantly swelled in a
most dreadful manner; a multitude of spots of different hues
alternately appeared and vanished, on different parts of his body;
his eyes were filled with madness and rage, he cast them on all
present with the most vindictive looks: he thrust out his tongue as
the snakes do; he hissed through his teeth with inconceivable
strength, and became an object of terror to all by-standers. To the
lividness of a corpse he united the desperate force of a maniac;
they hardly were able to fasten him, so as to guard themselves from
his attacks; when in the space of two hours death relieved the poor
wretch from his struggles, and the spectators from their
apprehensions. The poison of the rattlesnake is not mortal in so
short a space, and hence there is more time to procure relief; we
are acquainted with several antidotes with which almost every family
is provided. They are extremely inactive, and if not touched, are
perfectly inoffensive. I once saw, as I was travelling, a great
cliff which was full of them; I handled several, and they appeared
to be dead; they were all entwined together, and thus they remain
until the return of the sun. I found them out, by following the
track of some wild hogs which had fed on them; and even the Indians
often regale on them. When they find them asleep, they put a small
forked stick over their necks, which they keep immovably fixed on
the ground; giving the snake a piece of leather to bite: and this
they pull back several times with great force, until they observe
their two poisonous fangs torn out. Then they cut off the head, skin
the body, and cook it as we do eels; and their flesh is extremely
sweet and white. I once saw a TAMED ONE, as gentle as you can
possibly conceive a reptile to be; it took to the water and swam
whenever it pleased; and when the boys to whom it belonged called it
back, their summons was readily obeyed. It had been deprived of its
fangs by the preceding method; they often stroked it with a soft
brush, and this friction seemed to cause the most pleasing
sensations, for it would turn on its back to enjoy it, as a cat does
before the fire. One of this species was the cause, some years ago,
of a most deplorable accident which I shall relate to you, as I had
it from the widow and mother of the victims. A Dutch farmer of the
Minisink went to mowing, with his negroes, in his boots, a
precaution used to prevent being stung. Inadvertently he trod on a
snake, which immediately flew at his legs; and as it drew back in
order to renew its blow, one of his negroes cut it in two with his
scythe. They prosecuted their work, and returned home; at night the
farmer pulled off his boots and went to bed; and was soon after
attacked with a strange sickness at his stomach; he swelled, and
before a physician could be sent for, died. The sudden death of this
man did not cause much inquiry; the neighbourhood wondered, as is
usual in such cases, and without any further examination the corpse
was buried. A few days after, the son put on his father's boots, and
went to the meadow; at night he pulled them off, went to bed, and
was attacked with the same symptoms about the same time, and died in
the morning. A little before he expired the doctor came, but was not
able to assign what could be the cause of so singular a disorder;
however, rather than appear wholly at a loss before the country
people, he pronounced both father and son to have been bewitched.
Some weeks after, the widow sold all the movables for the benefit of
the younger children; and the farm was leased. One of the
neighbours, who bought the boots, presently put them on, and was
attacked in the same manner as the other two had been; but this
man's wife being alarmed by what had happened in the former family,
despatched one of her negroes for an eminent physician, who
fortunately having heard something of the dreadful affair, guessed
at the cause, applied oil, etc. and recovered the man. The boots
which had been so fatal, were then carefully examined; and he found
that the two fangs of the snake had been left in the leather, after
being wrenched out of their sockets by the strength with which the
snake had drawn back its head. The bladders which contained the
poison and several of the small nerves were still fresh, and adhered
to the boot. The unfortunate father and son had been poisoned by
pulling off these boots, in which action they imperceptibly
scratched their legs with the points of the fangs, through the
hollow of which, some of this astonishing poison was conveyed. You
have no doubt heard of their rattles, if you have not seen them; the
only observation I wish to make is, that the rattling is loud and
distinct when they are angry; and on the contrary, when pleased, it
sounds like a distant trepidation, in which nothing distinct is
heard. In the thick settlements, they are now become very scarce;
for wherever they are met with, open war is declared against them;
so that in a few years there will be none left but on our mountains.
The black snake on the contrary always diverts me because it excites
no idea of danger. Their swiftness is astonishing; they will
sometimes equal that of a horse; at other times they will climb up
trees in quest of our tree toads; or glide on the ground at full
length. On some occasions they present themselves half in the
reptile state, half erect; their eyes and their heads in the erect
posture appear to great advantage: the former display a fire which I
have often admired, and it is by these they are enabled to fascinate
birds and squirrels. When they have fixed their eyes on an animal,
they become immovable; only turning their head sometimes to the
right and sometimes to the left, but still with their sight
invariably directed to the object. The distracted victim, instead of
flying its enemy, seems to be arrested by some invincible power; it
screams; now approaches, and then recedes; and after skipping about
with unaccountable agitation, finally rushes into the jaws of the
snake, and is swallowed, as soon as it is covered with a slime or
glue to make it slide easily down the throat of the devourer.

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