Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1856-11-20
The Sandhillers.
WHAT SLAVERY DOES FOB THE POOR WHITE
MAN.

condition Of that miserable class Of whites
Sandhilers, whom the employment of slave
labor, BY the wealthier class, has driven
into vagahon dage. Shall another such COM
mGnity be raised up in Kansas!
Between the 'low country as it IS called,
and upper country, of South Carolina, lies
the middle of sandhiIl region. 4 large por
ton Of this tract, which varies from ten to
thirty miles. is covered with forests of pine,
in'erspersed here and there with variety
of other trees. Where it is under cultisa-
tion. the principal crop is cotton. But the
land is not generally fertile, and much of
it is likely to remain for long time par
tial wilderness.
The country itself presents lew interest
ing features, but it is the home OF singular
race of people, TO whom | may protitably
cevotc few paragraphs OF descr iption.
In travelling through the middle country
! often passed the rude, squalii cabins of
the Sandhiliefs Al The inmates hocked to
the door of their windowless domicie to-
filthy Set of beings never beheld else
where-not even within the Purlieus Of the
Five Points
Their complexion is CHASTITY yellowish
white, without the faintest hinge of whole
some red. The hair of the adults is geher-
allyIsandy and that Of the children nearly as
white as cotton. The children even palcr.
.f possible, than the adults. and often pain
fully haggard and sickly looking.
They are entirely ubeducated, and semi
b. rbar rus in II their habits. very dull and
stupid, and, in general social position, far
below the slave population around them
In fact the negroes look down upon them
with mingled feelings Of pity and contempt.
They are 'squatters' on lands belonging TO
others. either with or without their consent.
small patch Of ground near their cabins,
raising a little corn and lew cabbages,
melons, and sweet potatoes. Their agricul.
tural operations never extend beyoLd this.
Corn bread pork, and cabbage, Cried in
lard) seems to be their principal articles o.
diet. To procure the latter, and what few
clothes they require, they make shingles, or
baskets or gather pine knots and wild ber-
ries, which they sell in the villages; bat be-
yond what is required TO supply their very
limited actual necessities, they will not
work.
Their principal employments are hunting
and fishing, and their standard amuspments
drinking whiskey and fighting.
Their dress is as pr rimitive as their habits
The women and children invariably 90 bare
he AIDED and bare footed and bare-legged their
only garments apparently being a course
calico. The men wear cotton shirt, and
trousers of the course. home spun cloth of
the country, with the addition sometimes Of
an upper garment too rude and shapeless to
b. named or described.
one day met a migrating family Of these
miserable people. On a most sorry. !ank.
and most fleshess substitute for horse,
were p: ckrd the entire household effects of
the family. consisting Cf a bed and few
cooking utensils. Two small children oc-
cupied the top of the pack Two -lnrger
ones, each oaded with bundle, tfudged
with their mother, who appeared not mrre
than II years ui ag'. The father, wild,
>inister-looking i.linw, walked a little in
advance OF the rest, with his long rifle on
his shoulder, and his hunting pouch by his
side.
A correspondent of one of the city daiiies
a ,.-if nj 1 4
family:
Here, on The road, we meet a family wiz
have been i'll town. A little girl of ten
years o Id, 18th course old fragment OF d
dress on, is sitting on The backbone OF the
moving skeleton of horse, which has the
additional task of trailing along ricke!y
specimen of a wagon, in which is seated
man--a ieai outside squalid berbarian
maudin and obluscated with bald faced
whskey, with child four or five years old
by his side. Behind this, haggard-looking
boy upon another skeleton OF horse is
coming.
What an old, ou,laudsh, low-wheeled car
the horse is pulling. There sits the obi
woman and her grown up daughter, with
nothing on, apparently, except dirty bon
net. and coar-e and dirty gown, the daught-
er has basket by her side, and the old
wcman holds fast 10 suspicious looking
Jug, OF halt gallon measure, corked with
IA corn cob. Yuur life OH it, that is Jug o,
whiskey. The family haze been to The VII
lage with couple oi one nurse loads oi pine
knots used for light wood. They have pro-
bably sold them Tor Il dollar, half oil which
has doubtless, gone for whisky, and now
they ale getting home. Degraded as they
are, you see it is the man who is helpless
and the woman who has the care OF the Jug
and conducts the important expedition
There are hundreds such people dispersed
through these sandhills. You see the whole
Of this party are bare-legged and bare foot
ed. And now honey and brown they are.
And it is a curious fact, that in temperate
countries, the children of all semi barbarous
white people, except Sir Henry Bulwer's
black or roded Celts,) and all Anglo Saxon
back-woods, or mountain. or prairie people.
have cotton headed or fiaxen- headed child
rem.
Low indeed is the lowest class OF the
white people in the Southern States though
nowhere else have found them quite SO
degraded as in South Carolina. Poor
buckrah,' poor white folks are the terus
by which the Eegrus designate them. and in
the word poor great deal is meant in this
connection. 1t includes not only pecuniary
poverty, but ignorance, bouri>hness anu
general social degradation. The Southern
negro never applies the wcrd poor TO any
one who has the manners and beoring of
gentleman, however light his purse. Pour
white man i, an object he looks down up
on--an object OF pay or contempt.
The immense mass ol testimony in favor
OF Hoohand's German Bi;terS, cunv noes us
that the article is all tina. it is represented
to be, und in consequence ~e advise trial