Travels Through North America, During the Years 1825 and 1826. v. 1-2

I made my first excursion abroad in company with Colonel Wool and Major Massias, in a boat to Fort Moultrie, where the Colonel had to inspect two companies of the third regiment of artillery, lying there in garrison. This fort is situated at the entrance of Charleston Bay, upon a peninsula, Sullivan’s Island, which is connected with the continent by a marshy strip of land. The vessels running into the bay are compelled to pass within reach of the cannon of this fort. It is four miles distant from the city, and lies about half way from each extremity of the peninsula. Opposite is the coast battery, with a stone parapet. This battery can receive fifty pieces of cannon. There will be no further disbursements for the maintenance of this fort, since new works, after plans of General Bernard, are to be placed at the entrance of the passage, to guard against too close a blockade of the bay, so that the ancient and more retired posts will be deprived of all their importance. Between the city and Sullivan’s Island, on a point of land to the left, stands a defensive work called Castle Pinckney, resembling Castle Garden in New York, on the right is situated Castle Johnson. Sullivan’s Island is exceedingly sandy, nothing but cabbage trees grow upon it, so that I seemed transported to India. Outside the fort there are a number of slight built wooden houses, which, during the heats of summer, and especially when the yellow fever prevails in Charleston, are occupied by the inhabitants of that city, for the peninsula has the reputation of being healthier, and much more temperate in climate. The trunk of the cabbage-tree affords a good porous timber, which is peculiarly valuable for building in salt water, since it is not injured by it. It is highly recommended for entrenchments, as the balls of the enemy cannot splinter it. On the same spot where Fort Moultrie now stands, a fortress of the same name stood in the revolutionary war, which was built in great haste from trunks of the cabbage-tree, and maintained itself with great glory. We had a boat, attached to the artillery, prepared for our passage, which was manned by the artillerists. These are exercised as oarsmen in all posts situated on the water, and this is certainly a good arrangement, if the officers do not abuse the privilege. Our boat’s crew had unfortunately made too spirituous a breakfast, the oars of course moved as Providence guided them, and the colonel was so irritated, that he dispatched the whole six on landing to the black hole. I remained during the parade of the two artillery companies in garrison. A company of this description is with matrosses and cannoneers, fifty-five strong; from these are subtracted, the sentinels, sick, and those under arrest, so that both corps had scarcely sixty men under arms. The privates had fire-arms and cartridge boxes, and the matrosses and corporals alone carried side-arms. The haversack consisted of a wooden box, covered with black waxed linen. They wore grey pantaloons, and boots, as our artillery; the officers alone had white cloth pantaloons. The coats were not well made, and did not fit; all the men had large shirt collars, which had a bad effect, and gloves of a different pattern, because each individual bought for himself. While the colonel was going through the inspection, I took a walk on the ramparts with Major Massias, and visited the officer’s quarters. In the chamber of a lieutenant, in which we stopped, I found, besides the books belonging to service, a small library of English belles lettres, and classical poets.

Charleston keeps in pay a company of police soldiers, who during the night occupy several posts. They have their guard house near Jones’s Hotel, and I was startled to hear the retreat and reveillé beat there. This corps owes its support to the fear of the negroes. At nine o’clock in the evening a bell is sounded; and after this no negro can venture without a written permission from his master, or he will immediately be thrown into prison, nor can his owner obtain his release till next day, by the payment of a fine. Should the master refuse to pay this fine, then the slave receives twenty-five lashes, and a receipt, with which he is sent back to his master!

The market consists of five houses, in a long street ending upon the harbour, and resemble somewhat those of the Philadelphia market. The quantity of the most beautiful tropical fruit therein arranged, oranges from Florida, pistachios, and large excellent pine apples from Cuba, interested me much. These large and delicious fruit cost only twelve and a half cents each, of course a dollar for eight. There were nuts of various descriptions; many sorts of potatoes, cabbages, and white and red radishes. Fish were not presented in so great a variety as I expected. Of shell-fish, I saw oysters only, which are roasted in the shell at market, and consumed by the negroes with great avidity. Upon the roofs of the market houses sat a number of buzzards, who are supported by the offals. It is a species of vulture, black, with a naked head. Seen from a distance they resemble turkeys, for which reason they are denominated turkey-buzzards. They are not only suffered as very useful animals, but there is a fine of five dollars for the killing of one of these birds. A pair of these creatures were so tame that they crept about in the meat market among the feet of the buyers.

Accompanied by Dr. Johnson, Mr. Lowndes, and Dr. Tidyman, I visited the public institutions of the city. The Court-house, in which the different courts of justice hold their sessions, contains nothing remarkable with the exception of the City Library in the upper story, established by subscription. I noticed in this a beautiful collection of copperplates from the Shakspeare Gallery, and a sketched plan of Charleston with the investment of it in the revolutionary war. Since this epoch the city has much extended itself. On the localities, which then were occupied by fortifications, houses are now standing. The morasses which covered the left wing of these works, are filled up level with earth, and no trace of them is perceivable.

In the City Hall, the lower story is occupied by one large saloon. It is appropriated to the sittings of the city police. Above it are arranged the meeting rooms of the magistracy and various separate offices. In one of these apartments I noticed an elegant new plan of the city, designed by an emigrant French engineer, Mr. Petitral.

The Orphan-house is a brick building, three stories high, erected by voluntary contributions, and in it, one hundred and thirty-six children of both sexes are supported. I was surprized at the exceeding cleanliness pervading the whole establishment. The children sleep upon the floor, and the girls and sick only are allowed mattresses; the boys have a woollen coverlet, in which they wrap themselves. I was informed that this was done from fear of vermin. A very nourishing diet, and a truly maternal care, preserve the children healthy. At their twelfth year, they are provided for abroad to enable them to earn their own subsistence. Many of the boys enter into the United States navy, and it has been reported to me that two of the pupils of this institution have attained the rank of officers. Behind the house is a moderately large chapel, in the midst of the garden. The clergy of all Christian professions can hold divine service here every Sunday afternoon; in the mornings, the service in turn is taken charge of by a superintendent. In front of the building is a large open square. In it stands an ill-preserved statue of Lord Chatham, which was erected by the then colony of South Carolina, before the breaking out of the American revolution, in memory of that great man, in gratitude for the opposition he maintained against colonial taxation. An inscription on the statue mentions this. During the siege, it stood at the corner of the street, near the City Hall. There it lost an arm by one of the first English balls that struck the city.

The state prison is a small building. The prisoners are too much crowded together, and have no employment. The atrocious criminals live in the upper story, and are immured two together in a cell, without ever being permitted to come into the open air. This is allowed only to those dwelling in the first story, consisting of debtors, and persons who are imprisoned for breaches of the peace. The walls within, as well as the flooring, are of strong oak wood. In each apartment is an iron ring in the floor, for the purpose of securing dangerous prisoners. In the upper story there is a negro confined, who, implicated in one of the late conspiracies, had not committed himself so far as to allow of his being hung; nevertheless, his presence appeared so dangerous to the public tranquillity, that he is detained in prison till his master can find some opportunity to ship him to the West Indies, and there sell him. In another room was a white prisoner, and it is not known whether he be an American or Scotchman, who involved himself by his writings deeply in the last negro conspiracy. The prisoners received their food while we were present: it consisted of very good soup, and three-quarters of a pound of beef. Upon the ground floor is the dwelling of the keeper, who was an Amsterdam Jew, and the state-rooms in which gentlemen, who are lodged here, receive accommodation for money and fair words. The cleanliness of the house was not very great; upon the whole it left an unfavourable impression upon me.

I found the other prison, destined for the punishment of minor offences of the negro slaves, in a better condition. In it there were about forty individuals of both sexes. These slaves are either such as have been arrested during the night by the police, or such as have been sent here by their masters for punishment. The house displays throughout a remarkable neatness; black overseers go about every where armed with cow-hides. In the basement story there is an apparatus upon which the negroes, by order of the police, or at the request of their masters, are flogged. The latter can have nineteen lashes inflicted on them according to the existing law. The machine consists of a sort of crane, on which a cord with two nooses runs over pullies; the nooses are made fast to the hands of the slave and drawn up, while the feet are bound tight to a plank. The body is stretched out as much as possible, and thus the miserable creature receives the exact number of lashes as counted off! Within a year, flogging occurs less frequently: that is to say, a tread-mill has been erected in a back building of the prison, in which there are two tread-wheels in operation. Each employs twelve prisoners, who work a mill for grinding corn, and thereby contribute to the support of the prison. Six tread at once upon each wheel, while six rest upon a bench placed behind the wheel. Every half minute the left hand man steps off the tread-wheel, while the five others move to the left to fill up the vacant place; at the same time the right hand man sitting on the bench, steps on the wheel, and begins his movement, while the rest, sitting on the bench, uniformly recede. Thus, even three minutes sitting, allows the unhappy being no repose. The signal for changing is given by a small bell attached to the wheel. The prisoners are compelled to labour eight hours a day in this manner. Order is preserved by a person, who, armed with a cow-hide, stands by the wheel. Both sexes tread promiscuously upon the wheel. Since, however, only twenty-four prisoners find employment at once on both wheels, the idle are obliged in the interval to sit upon the floor in the upper chambers, and observe a strict silence. One who had eloped several times from a plantation, was fastened by a heavy iron ring, that passed over his leg to the floor. To provide against this state of idleness, there should be another pair of tread-wheels erected. The negroes entertain a strong fear of the tread-mills, and regard flogging as the lighter evil! Of about three hundred and sixty, who, since the erection of these tread-mills, have been employed upon them, only six have been sent back a second time.

The poor-house, an old building raised by subscription, contains one hundred and sixty-six paupers. It will only admit such poor persons as are completely disabled. Those who can labour a little can obtain the employment they desire, and then receive good attendance and proper support. The sick were taken care of in a distinct infirmary, where each had a separate bed. The healthy slept upon the floor. I enquired why the sick were not provided with iron bedsteads in place of the wooden ones they occupied? and was informed that it was from apprehension of the prevailing severe thunder-storms.

Connected with the Poor-house is a Magdalen Asylum, which provides shelter and care for thirty unfortunate beings. It struck me forcibly, as I saw under an open shed in the yard where the poor walked about, the dead cart, and close by it numbers of empty coffins piled up together, that the scene might be very well introduced in a monastery of the order of La Trappe.

A medical school is to be built not far from the poor-house. Until the completion of this structure, the students, one hundred and twenty in number, receive their instruction in a wooden building, in which there are arranged an amphitheatre, and a chemical laboratory.

Dr. Tidyman and Mr. Lowndes had the politeness to show me a rice mill established a few years ago. This mill is the property of Mr. Lucas, who has fixed a similar one in the neighbourhood of London. Rice is known as the staple article of produce of the lowlands in South Carolina, and yet there was no mill hitherto to free the rice from its husk, and to prepare it for use or export. This mill is situated near the river Ashley. The schooner that conveys the rice from the plantation, lies directly before it, a cart is taken on board the vessel filled with rice, and by means of an inclined plane drawn into the mill, where it is deposited. Hence the rice is drawn to the upper story, in which it is cleared of dust by a fan, and passed between two large mill-stones which frees the hull from the grain. It is then placed in a cylinder of bolting cloth. By this it is further cleaned from all the hull. Now it comes into the trough, where it is beaten by heavy hammers faced with tin, and by that means is completely cleaned. It is once more conveyed into a bolting cylinder, where, by another series of revolutions, it is freed from the slightest dust, and shook through a tube into the tierces placed for packing. The tierces stand upon a trunnel, which whirls round while a hammer continually strikes upon it. Such a tierce in this way receives six hundred pounds of rice. The machinery is to be set in motion in future by a steam-machine of twenty-four horse-power. It is wonderful, however, that the best steam-engines must be made in England to supply a country that has numbered Robert Fulton among her citizens!

Dr. Tidyman honoured me with a dinner, at which I met several of the distinguished inhabitants of the place, as Mr. Lowndes, Major Garden, son of that Scotch physician to whose honour Linnæus has given the name of Gardenia to a class of plants; Mr. J. Allen Smith, who passed seventeen years of his life in Europe, principally in Russia, and enjoyed the especial favour of the Emperor Alexander; he was present at my brother’s marriage, and enquired after him in the most ardent manner. This extremely amiable and interesting man has lost the greater part of his property. Here also I met with the Marquis de Fougères, Mr. Viel, and the English Consul, Mr. Newman. After dinner was over, a numerous company of gentlemen and ladies assembled, who remained in society through the evening. We had music, some of which was very good.

In one of my strolls through the city, I talked with a person from Erfurt, Mr. Siegling, who had established a music store here, and appeared to do very good business. I saw at his residence several handsome English harps and piano fortes; also several wind instruments of different kinds. He pricks the notes himself on tin, and has a press with which he prints them.

In Charleston there exists among the Germans, and their descendants, who for the most part are tradesmen of small capital, but persons of great respectability, a Friendly German Society.

On Sunday the 18th of December, two members of this Society, the militia Colonel Sass, a native Hessian, who had already passed fifty-two years in this country, and Mr. Strohhecker, came to take me to the Lutheran church. The Lutheran preacher, Mr. Bachman, a native of Troy, in the State of New York, administered divine service in the English language. The church has been built but a few years. It is simple within, but in very good taste. The organ is good, and was well played, and the hymns sung in unison by the congregation. Mr. Bachman delivered an excellent sermon upon the story of Cornelius, from the Acts of the Apostles. Afterwards he detailed a report of a journey of about eight hundred miles, which he had performed through the interior of this state, for the purpose of examining the condition of the various Lutheran congregations. The report upon churches and schools appeared very favourable. This service displayed so much benevolence, and real goodness, that I felt truly edified.

Upon the following day I was accompanied by Mr. Bacott and his brother-in-law, to St. Michael’s episcopal church, to see the building, and particularly the steeple, one hundred and eighty-six feet high. We mounted two hundred and thirty-six steps, and enjoyed a very handsome prospect over the regular built city, the bay, and adjacent country. The bay, with its protecting forts, showed to great advantage; the surrounding district not so agreeably, it being very level and overgrown with wood. In the city several buildings reared their heads, among others, the churches, and there are here twenty-two churches belonging to various sects, then the orphan-house and custom-house. St. Michael’s church contains in itself nothing worthy of remark, if you except some simple funeral tablets. The churches, moreover, stand in the centre of burial grounds, and the custom still prevails, so injurious to health, of entombing the dead in the city.

On the same day, the last of my stay in Charleston, I was present at a dinner which the German Friendly Society gave in compliment to me, having invited me by a deputation. The party met at half past three o’clock. The company was composed, with the exception of the mayor, Dr. Johnson, of more than sixty persons, for the most part Germans or of German origin. It was assembled in a house belonging to the society, in which, besides the large assembly room, was also a school for the children of the members, and the dwellings of the preceptors. The society was instituted in the year 1766, the principal founder was Captain Kalteisen, a native Wirtemburger, who had raised a volunteer corps of fusileers from the Germans then living there, with which he not only distinguished himself in the defence of Fort Moultrie against the English, but also personally, during the whole war, rendered the most important services as adjutant quarter-master-general in the staff of the southern army. The company of fusileers always preserved their connection with the German Society. Kalteisen himself died in the year 1807, as commandant of Fort Johnson; he was so attached to this German association, that he had himself buried in the yard of the building, the bricks of the pavement mark the form of his coffin over it, and a tablet of marble in the hall contains an inscription to the memory of the deceased. In the great hall, his portrait hangs next to that of Colonel Sass, who after him commanded the company, and of a Wormser, named Strobel, who was a joint founder of the society, and whose sons and nephew appeared at table. Two brothers, Messrs. Horlbeck, presided at the dinner, which was very well arranged. They had the politeness to nominate me an honorary member of the society, and to present me their laws for my signature; under them were here and there crosses only. Several of the usual toasts were given out; my health being drank, I returned my thanks in the German language. There was also singing. The melody was guided by an old Mr. Eckhardt, a Hessian that had come to America with the Hessian troops, as a musician, and remained here. He is now organist of one of the churches, and three of his sons occupy the same station in other churches. The German society possesses, moreover, a library, which owes its origin to donations. In the school-room there was a planetarium, very neatly finished, set in motion by clock-work.

CHAPTER XVI

Journey from Charleston, through Augusta, Milledgeville, Macon, and the country of the Creek Indians, to Montgomery, in the State of Alabama

My design had been to travel from Charleston to Savannah. I understood, however, that the stage to Savannah was very bad; that the steam-boat went very irregularly; that Savannah had lost its importance as a place of trade, and on the whole, contained nothing worthy of observation. As this tour would cost me many days, and a circuitous route, I resolved to relinquish the visit to Savannah, and betake myself the nearest way to Augusta, one hundred and twenty-nine miles distant; thence by Milledgeville through the Creek Indians, to go into the state of Alabama. Colonel Wool liked my plan, as also did Mr. Temple Bowdoin, an Anglo-American, a very polished man, who had travelled, and who in his younger days served in the British army. We had engaged the mail stage for ourselves alone, and in it left Charleston on the 20th of December.

We passed Ashley river at the same place, and in the same team-boat, as I did eight days back. It was at low ebb, and many oyster banks were exposed dry. This was a novel spectacle to me. The oysters stood straight up, close together, and had somewhat the appearance of a brush. Several negroes were employed in taking them out of the mud, in baskets. Even on the piers of the bridge, many oysters were sticking fast. On the opposite shore the road ran through a country generally woody, but partly ornamented with plantations. Several of these plantations are pretty, commonly an avenue of ancient, well preserved live oaks, leads up to the mansion-house, at the entrance of which a grated gate is placed. Maize and cotton are planted here, and in some places also rice, which is the staple of the lower part of South Carolina. The rice fields must stand several months of the year under water. On this account they are situated in swampy districts, and surrounded by ditches of water. But in consequence of this, these places are so unhealthy, that hardly a white planter can remain during the summer on his plantation; he is obliged to resort to Charleston, or the northern states. The climate of Charleston is such, that whoever is there in the beginning of the hot season, dares not to sleep a single night during the continuance of it, upon a plantation, without exposing his life to imminent danger. The blacks are the only human beings on whom this deadly climate has no bad effect, and they are, therefore, indispensable for the cultivation of this district. The vegetation was again extremely beautiful, noble live oaks, laurel trees, magnolias, cabbage and macaw trees. The road ran upon light bridges over small rivers, on the banks of which negroes were busied in angling. We saw the family of a planter in an elegant boat, manned by six black oarsmen, rowing to their plantation. In a large inn, which was itself the mansion-house of a plantation, we found a particularly good dinner. In the evening we crossed the Edisto river in a narrow ferry-boat, for the arrival of which we were obliged to delay a long time. The soil was mostly very sandy, partly also marshy, and the jolting log causeways made us tired of our lives. On this side of the river we arrived at the village of Edisto. We travelled through the whole night, and I suffered much from the cold in my airy seat. Otherwise, it was a clear moonlight, and if it had been a little warmer would deserve the appellation of a fine night. We changed our stage during the night, but gained nothing.

The succeeding morning exhibited all the ponds of water covered with a crust of ice. We passed the Salkechee and Cambahee rivers upon bridges, and noticed nothing worthy of observation. The vegetation was less beautiful than on the preceding day; the plantations were also less considerable. At a new plantation, at which we arrived about break of day, I spoke to the overseer of the negroes. The man’s employment I recognised from his whip, and from the use he made of it, in rousing up the negroes to make a fire. He told us that in the district, where the plantation was situated, and where maize and cotton were planted, but a little time before there was nothing but forest; his employer had commenced in 1816, with two negroes, and now he possessed one hundred and four, who were kept at work in clearing the wood, and extending the plantation. The cotton crop was finished in most of the fields, and cattle were driven in, to consume the weeds and tops of the bushes. We passed several mill-ponds, and saw some saw-mills. Only pine trees appeared to flourish in this part of the country; upon the whole, it was hilly, and the progress was tedious through the deep sand. We passed the river Savannah three miles from Augusta, in a little ferry-boat. The left bank appeared here and there to be rocky, and pretty high; the right is sandy. When we crossed the river, we left the state of South Carolina, and entered that of Georgia, the most southern of the old thirteen United States, which in fifty years have grown to twenty-four in number. We reached Augusta in the evening at nine o’clock, on a very good road, a scattered built town of four thousand six hundred inhabitants, of both complexions. We took up our quarters in the Globe Hotel, a tolerable inn; during the whole day it was very clear, but cold weather, in the evening it froze hard. The old remark is a very just one, that one suffers no where so much from cold as in a warm climate, since the dwellings are well calculated to resist heat, but in nowise suited to repel cold.